A wild Niki appears...
What's this? Niki disappears off the face of the planet for how many months? Fuck I think my last entry was in OCTOBER? *headshake*
Erm... Yes i'm still alive, yes Crash is right RP has eaten my soul but I enjoy it far too much to ask for my soul back aaaaand i come with an offering of drabble? random ass drabble of the Avatar: The Last Airbender variety? I'm rather uncertain of my characterization so anyone that knows the series do let me know what you think.
Title: Determination
Character(s): Katara
Word count: 766
Rating: PG
Summary: Takes place mid ep 3-16 "The Southern Raiders"
It had been so intense at first. Making their plans as haphazardly as she imagined Zuko had once made his as he chased them from one corner of the Earth Kingdom to another. Getting Appa from Aang, willingly or not, locating the communication tower for the Fire Nation’s Naval Force, breaking in with all the stealth they could muster between the two of them. Now the culmination of their efforts was just ahead.
Perhaps not just ahead. Much as she wished it were. The sun had set some time ago and the air was chilled with night as well as their altitude. Zuko slept quietly in the saddle behind her and she… she fought not to let her mind wander, not to let Aang’s disappointed face haunt her. She would do this. She would bring justice to this man -no, not a man, a monster- that had stolen her mother from her.
Determination ran through her, cold and hard, as unforgiving as the ice she was raised amongst. This was it. This was her one chance to redeem herself. She’d never thought to have this opportunity. Then Zuko had come to her with a name and suddenly… anything was possible. Everything was possible. She would have justice for herself and her mother.
She’d been small and frail and weak before. So weak… but no longer. Oh no. She had strength enough now to make soldiers of the Fire Nation flee in terror. She was not the weak little girl she’d once been.
Zuko wakes, tells her to conserve her strength. She merely tightens her grip on Appa’s reins and, for the first time, says aloud what has been running through her head. The only thing she allows herself to think of. She is strong enough, she is powerful and brave and she will not fail her mother again.
Is that really what she thinks this would be? A failure? To know where her mother’s killer was and not act? Yes. A betrayal, a failure. That is something she is not willing to allow. She’s been in battles before. She’s killed before… why should this be any different?
Just because the Fire Nation soldiers that had died at her hand were faceless nameless forms, buried under sheets of ice unseen did not make them any less dead. She tries not to think about it. Tries not to wonder if they had wives or siblings or children. She has to pretend they are nothing more than the armor they wear least she loose herself to this brutal cycle that has become her life. But not now.
Now that knowledge is a weight in her stomach but it only serves to strengthen her resolve. Reassure herself of her own ability. She was the last Waterbender to come from the South Pole. She was just as much a warrior as her brother and she alone could do this.
She had been the one to take on her mother’s role. She was the one who had shouldered all their mother’s responsibilities. She had taken on the run of their home, the duties of their family… and she had failed. So. Many. Times. She was supposed to protect them. She was the one with power, she was the responsible one. It was her job to keep them safe because it was her fault.
Her breath came harder and her jaw clenched. The slender fingers wrapped around the leather reins were white knuckled with the force of her grip. If she were ever to have faith in her own strength, in her ability to protect her family, now larger than ever, from the monsters of the Fire Nation now was that time. She would do everything in her power to bring justice to any who wronged them past or present.
“Zuko.” She could not say how much time had passed when she saw the dark form of the ship on the horizon but as soon as she did she spoke her companion’s name, not loudly but forceful enough that the teen was soon leaning over the saddle. He hadn’t been asleep anymore than she had. What had he been thinking of as they rushed across the sea towards their fate?
How strange it was that in this the only person who understood was the one person she had thought just as heartless as the man she was going to kill.
Kill? Had she already made up her mind so thoroughly? Had she already abandoned Aang’s pleas for justice over vengeance?
Yes. Sometimes justice and vengeance just happened to be one in the same.
Erm... Yes i'm still alive, yes Crash is right RP has eaten my soul but I enjoy it far too much to ask for my soul back aaaaand i come with an offering of drabble? random ass drabble of the Avatar: The Last Airbender variety? I'm rather uncertain of my characterization so anyone that knows the series do let me know what you think.
Title: Determination
Character(s): Katara
Word count: 766
Rating: PG
Summary: Takes place mid ep 3-16 "The Southern Raiders"
It had been so intense at first. Making their plans as haphazardly as she imagined Zuko had once made his as he chased them from one corner of the Earth Kingdom to another. Getting Appa from Aang, willingly or not, locating the communication tower for the Fire Nation’s Naval Force, breaking in with all the stealth they could muster between the two of them. Now the culmination of their efforts was just ahead.
Perhaps not just ahead. Much as she wished it were. The sun had set some time ago and the air was chilled with night as well as their altitude. Zuko slept quietly in the saddle behind her and she… she fought not to let her mind wander, not to let Aang’s disappointed face haunt her. She would do this. She would bring justice to this man -no, not a man, a monster- that had stolen her mother from her.
Determination ran through her, cold and hard, as unforgiving as the ice she was raised amongst. This was it. This was her one chance to redeem herself. She’d never thought to have this opportunity. Then Zuko had come to her with a name and suddenly… anything was possible. Everything was possible. She would have justice for herself and her mother.
She’d been small and frail and weak before. So weak… but no longer. Oh no. She had strength enough now to make soldiers of the Fire Nation flee in terror. She was not the weak little girl she’d once been.
Zuko wakes, tells her to conserve her strength. She merely tightens her grip on Appa’s reins and, for the first time, says aloud what has been running through her head. The only thing she allows herself to think of. She is strong enough, she is powerful and brave and she will not fail her mother again.
Is that really what she thinks this would be? A failure? To know where her mother’s killer was and not act? Yes. A betrayal, a failure. That is something she is not willing to allow. She’s been in battles before. She’s killed before… why should this be any different?
Just because the Fire Nation soldiers that had died at her hand were faceless nameless forms, buried under sheets of ice unseen did not make them any less dead. She tries not to think about it. Tries not to wonder if they had wives or siblings or children. She has to pretend they are nothing more than the armor they wear least she loose herself to this brutal cycle that has become her life. But not now.
Now that knowledge is a weight in her stomach but it only serves to strengthen her resolve. Reassure herself of her own ability. She was the last Waterbender to come from the South Pole. She was just as much a warrior as her brother and she alone could do this.
She had been the one to take on her mother’s role. She was the one who had shouldered all their mother’s responsibilities. She had taken on the run of their home, the duties of their family… and she had failed. So. Many. Times. She was supposed to protect them. She was the one with power, she was the responsible one. It was her job to keep them safe because it was her fault.
Her breath came harder and her jaw clenched. The slender fingers wrapped around the leather reins were white knuckled with the force of her grip. If she were ever to have faith in her own strength, in her ability to protect her family, now larger than ever, from the monsters of the Fire Nation now was that time. She would do everything in her power to bring justice to any who wronged them past or present.
“Zuko.” She could not say how much time had passed when she saw the dark form of the ship on the horizon but as soon as she did she spoke her companion’s name, not loudly but forceful enough that the teen was soon leaning over the saddle. He hadn’t been asleep anymore than she had. What had he been thinking of as they rushed across the sea towards their fate?
How strange it was that in this the only person who understood was the one person she had thought just as heartless as the man she was going to kill.
Kill? Had she already made up her mind so thoroughly? Had she already abandoned Aang’s pleas for justice over vengeance?
Yes. Sometimes justice and vengeance just happened to be one in the same.