AtLA/DW: Two Ships That Pass In The Night
Title: Two Ships That Pass in the Night
Fandom: Avatar the Last Airbender/Doctor Who
Author: kawaiispinel
Feedback: ...Is loverly.
Word Count: 1889
Rating: PG-13
Characters: Katara, Ten, various mentions of Sokka, Toph, and Aang.
Warnings: Rocks fall, everyone dies?
Summary: In her darkest hour, Katara finds a reason to go on.
Disclaimer: Neither of the shiny is mine. No, seriously. It's not, but combining them is fuuun.
Author's Note: This would totally be crack if I didn't, you know, kill everyone. And damn, I'm going to be so sad when the war is over on AtLA. It'll destroy all my plots. (And I still hate my Doctor-voice. Gaaah.)
She ran delicate fingers across the strange instruments- more advanced than anything that the Fire Nation could ever build, her heart fluttering in her chest like a trapped sparrow cat. She had never seen such a thing- such a frightening, wondrous thing in her entire life, and she’d liked to believe that she’d seen quite a lot.
She thought of Toph and how she would have loved the feel of the unfamiliar metals under her fingertips and the vibrations that reverberated from the very heart of this magnificent machine and her breath hitched, her heart stopping its fluttering in favor of a sharp pain. Toph would never set foot here. She would never set foot anywhere again.
She closed her eyes, the sound of the war filling her ears- a thousand people dying, too many for her to heal. In the end, she couldn’t even save those closest to her. She willed the sounds away, pleading that this place give her the sanctuary that she thought it would hold. When she saw that strange box on the horizon as blue as the water she manipulated with such ease, she had thought the spirits had sent her into madness to dull the pain, but as soon as she entered the doors, she had collapsed into the arms of someone- a man, she remembered- and knew nothing more until she awoke later- how much later, she didn’t know. The only sounds of battle were the sounds in her head, so perhaps the fighting had stopped outside. She didn’t have the heart to check.
She thought of the man to keep her mind on what might be waiting for her when she left the haven of this confusing blue box. A strange, pale man who didn’t look like anyone she had ever seen anywhere in all of her travels across the Four Nations, much like this thing that she was yet unable to name. She wondered where he was and whether he was coming back- perhaps he had gone out into the battle and had been felled there too, just like everyone else. Perhaps it would just prove that she was a magnet for misfortune.
"You’re looking better," a cheerful voice spoke up behind her. She whirled, her skirts swishing around her ankles- Fire Nation silk. (She felt horrible wearing their colors now, after all was said and done. The clothes brushed against her flesh and made her feel unclean, as if their poison was seeping into her.)
The man was standing with his hands in his pockets and she studied him thoroughly. Nothing about him was familiar- his skin, his accent, his clothing. It was all strange and alien to her. Fearful, she backed against the wall, afraid that perhaps he wasn’t her savior and that perhaps he was worse than even the Fire Nation. She couldn’t be sure of anything anymore.
He sensed her fear and took a tentative step forwards. "I’m not going to hurt you." He gestured towards the door. "You were out there in that battle, weren’t you?"
She nodded, fear making her vocal chords cease to function. Not that she could speak without screaming now, possibly ever. His casual mention of the battle made the images too vivid. (Sokka first, Toph following.... Aang was last- so much blood. More than she’d ever seen in her life. A thousand oceans couldn’t have washed away the stains. She was surprised she wasn’t covered in it, but perhaps she was? Perhaps the fabric of her dress was dyed with blood and she had been too foolish to notice.)
"Everyone out there is dead," he said casually. He looked back at her, awaiting her to react and react she did, with a tearful wail as she sank to her knees and buried her face in her hands, all of the emotion she felt bearing down on her savagely. It was all gone. It was all over.
He waited until she had finished crying before he issued an awkward apology. "I should have realized... What were you doing out there anyway?" He asked, the last sentence sounding somewhat confused as if the thought of a young girl out in the middle of a major war was astonishing to him.
"Fighting," she finally managed to whisper, her voice hoarse and choked with tears. "And healing," she added, as an afterthought, because she certainly tried to do more of that even if it had all been for naught. Maybe if she hadn’t stopped to heal everyone she saw, maybe if she had saved her energy.... Maybe...
He was talking again, interrupting her thoughts and she caught the last part of his sentence. "...Don’t understand why you humans have to go around killing each other like savages."
She glowered. She wanted to give him a lengthy lecture about how the Fire Nation had destroyed everything and deserved to be destroyed in turn, but she was too tired, too upset, and too frustrated to even bother.
"What’s your name?" He asked her when the silence between them got too awkward.
That was a simple question. She could answer it without much effort. "Katara," she replied.
"Well, Katara, I’m The Doctor," he introduced himself, kneeling beside her. He was trying to be sympathetic and years of living with Sokka had told her when someone was trying too hard at something they knew very little about. (Her heart pained her again at the thought of Sokka.) He took another look at the door, and added, "And I think we should get out of here."
"And go where?" She asked without thinking. There was a part of her that wanted to go far away, as far as he could take her, but another part of her wanted to stay, to fight on in memory of her fallen friends, but what was the point of that? There was nothing left. The Avatar had fallen. The Fire Nation had won. She couldn’t live in that sort of world, not even to fight futilely to destroy it. She would have been better off dying right along with Aang. She almost had wanted to when he slipped away in her arms. She was so close to slitting her own throat in anguish, but she had been brave, had fought... Until she found this box and this man who seemed to be able to promise her a way to make all of this go away.
He stood up excitedly, gesturing wildly. "To the stars, Katara! Have you ever looked up at the night sky and wondered if you could visit them? See what other worlds there might be?"
As a matter of fact, she had. It was something she and Aang had often wondered about on long nights when neither of them were sleeping. What would he think of her if she chose them over the war? What would he think of her if she ran away? Would he want her to be safe or keep fighting? So many questions...
"Well?" The Doctor- such a funny name for such a funny man- said, smiling. She lifted her head to look in his eyes, wondering still what she should do until her thoughts finally fit together coherently and she stood slowly, gracefully, and then shook her head. There was only one decision she could make.
"They need me here," she whispered, not even sure what "they" she was referring to- the spirits of her old friends or the world in general. "I can’t just run away now." And she couldn’t. Being offered that chance was all it took to make her see that. She knew what she wanted to do, but this war didn’t hinge on what she wanted.
The Doctor smiled, apparently understanding. He seemed to know much. Maybe one day when the war was over, she would meet him again and see what sorts of things she could learn from him... But not today. "You humans, always so suicidally noble."
She smiled back just a little. "I guess so," she replied. She let herself out the door and stepped back onto the battleground where nothing was left but the wind and a sea of corpses. She retched violently as the stench stung her nostrils, the shaking returning, the memories fighting their way back to the surface. She turned back to where she thought the blue box might be waiting for her, but found nothing there, as if it had never been there at all and the spirits had been playing tricks on her. In a way, it was a blessing. She might have been tempted to go back if it had still been behind her, and that was the last thing she could do.
She had a war to finish. If not for the world, then for her friends.
She couldn’t run away.
~*~
The Doctor returned to that world only once, when fifty years had passed since his first appearance. He knew the history of it well enough, which was why he had delighted in the idea of arriving on the day the war took a turn for the worse, and then for the better again that first time.. This second time was just to see what had become of the beautiful young girl who had declined his offer.
A statue was erected in the city they called Ba Sing Se and he hunched in the shadows, staring at it with awed eyes. It depicted four figures- at the front was a boy with a shaved head and eyes painted to look as if they were glowing as white as pure starlight. To his left, a tall young warrior in white and black war paint, his hand resting protectively on the shoulder of a young girl all in green, her head lowered so that her painstakingly carved bangs covered her face.
And closest to the boy with starlight for eyes, one arm draped around his shoulder, was her, looking every bit like an avenging angel, one arm raised to manipulate an arc of water that formed an arch around the entire statue, her hair falling into her face. Much detail had been taken to get her features perfect, as if it was vitally important everyone who passed by that statue knew what she looked like.
When the street began to clear as the sun began to set, he crept out of the shadows to read the inscription on the base, the language not at all unlike ancient Chinese. It listed four names- including hers- and described them as warriors who fell in the battle against the Fire Nation, but were vitally important of the liberation of the other three nations from their stranglehold. They had all died heroes- she most of all, for she had led them when they had no hope left.
His eyes lingered on Katara’s perfectly carved image. "So suicidally noble," he whispered. He couldn’t help but think that she wouldn’t have died if she had come with him... She wouldn’t have died, but she wouldn’t have been a hero. She would have seen amazing things, but she never would have won the war.
He could have taken all the pain away from her, but then she never would have gotten stronger.
Fandom: Avatar the Last Airbender/Doctor Who
Author: kawaiispinel
Feedback: ...Is loverly.
Word Count: 1889
Rating: PG-13
Characters: Katara, Ten, various mentions of Sokka, Toph, and Aang.
Warnings: Rocks fall, everyone dies?
Summary: In her darkest hour, Katara finds a reason to go on.
Disclaimer: Neither of the shiny is mine. No, seriously. It's not, but combining them is fuuun.
Author's Note: This would totally be crack if I didn't, you know, kill everyone. And damn, I'm going to be so sad when the war is over on AtLA. It'll destroy all my plots. (And I still hate my Doctor-voice. Gaaah.)
She ran delicate fingers across the strange instruments- more advanced than anything that the Fire Nation could ever build, her heart fluttering in her chest like a trapped sparrow cat. She had never seen such a thing- such a frightening, wondrous thing in her entire life, and she’d liked to believe that she’d seen quite a lot.
She thought of Toph and how she would have loved the feel of the unfamiliar metals under her fingertips and the vibrations that reverberated from the very heart of this magnificent machine and her breath hitched, her heart stopping its fluttering in favor of a sharp pain. Toph would never set foot here. She would never set foot anywhere again.
She closed her eyes, the sound of the war filling her ears- a thousand people dying, too many for her to heal. In the end, she couldn’t even save those closest to her. She willed the sounds away, pleading that this place give her the sanctuary that she thought it would hold. When she saw that strange box on the horizon as blue as the water she manipulated with such ease, she had thought the spirits had sent her into madness to dull the pain, but as soon as she entered the doors, she had collapsed into the arms of someone- a man, she remembered- and knew nothing more until she awoke later- how much later, she didn’t know. The only sounds of battle were the sounds in her head, so perhaps the fighting had stopped outside. She didn’t have the heart to check.
She thought of the man to keep her mind on what might be waiting for her when she left the haven of this confusing blue box. A strange, pale man who didn’t look like anyone she had ever seen anywhere in all of her travels across the Four Nations, much like this thing that she was yet unable to name. She wondered where he was and whether he was coming back- perhaps he had gone out into the battle and had been felled there too, just like everyone else. Perhaps it would just prove that she was a magnet for misfortune.
"You’re looking better," a cheerful voice spoke up behind her. She whirled, her skirts swishing around her ankles- Fire Nation silk. (She felt horrible wearing their colors now, after all was said and done. The clothes brushed against her flesh and made her feel unclean, as if their poison was seeping into her.)
The man was standing with his hands in his pockets and she studied him thoroughly. Nothing about him was familiar- his skin, his accent, his clothing. It was all strange and alien to her. Fearful, she backed against the wall, afraid that perhaps he wasn’t her savior and that perhaps he was worse than even the Fire Nation. She couldn’t be sure of anything anymore.
He sensed her fear and took a tentative step forwards. "I’m not going to hurt you." He gestured towards the door. "You were out there in that battle, weren’t you?"
She nodded, fear making her vocal chords cease to function. Not that she could speak without screaming now, possibly ever. His casual mention of the battle made the images too vivid. (Sokka first, Toph following.... Aang was last- so much blood. More than she’d ever seen in her life. A thousand oceans couldn’t have washed away the stains. She was surprised she wasn’t covered in it, but perhaps she was? Perhaps the fabric of her dress was dyed with blood and she had been too foolish to notice.)
"Everyone out there is dead," he said casually. He looked back at her, awaiting her to react and react she did, with a tearful wail as she sank to her knees and buried her face in her hands, all of the emotion she felt bearing down on her savagely. It was all gone. It was all over.
He waited until she had finished crying before he issued an awkward apology. "I should have realized... What were you doing out there anyway?" He asked, the last sentence sounding somewhat confused as if the thought of a young girl out in the middle of a major war was astonishing to him.
"Fighting," she finally managed to whisper, her voice hoarse and choked with tears. "And healing," she added, as an afterthought, because she certainly tried to do more of that even if it had all been for naught. Maybe if she hadn’t stopped to heal everyone she saw, maybe if she had saved her energy.... Maybe...
He was talking again, interrupting her thoughts and she caught the last part of his sentence. "...Don’t understand why you humans have to go around killing each other like savages."
She glowered. She wanted to give him a lengthy lecture about how the Fire Nation had destroyed everything and deserved to be destroyed in turn, but she was too tired, too upset, and too frustrated to even bother.
"What’s your name?" He asked her when the silence between them got too awkward.
That was a simple question. She could answer it without much effort. "Katara," she replied.
"Well, Katara, I’m The Doctor," he introduced himself, kneeling beside her. He was trying to be sympathetic and years of living with Sokka had told her when someone was trying too hard at something they knew very little about. (Her heart pained her again at the thought of Sokka.) He took another look at the door, and added, "And I think we should get out of here."
"And go where?" She asked without thinking. There was a part of her that wanted to go far away, as far as he could take her, but another part of her wanted to stay, to fight on in memory of her fallen friends, but what was the point of that? There was nothing left. The Avatar had fallen. The Fire Nation had won. She couldn’t live in that sort of world, not even to fight futilely to destroy it. She would have been better off dying right along with Aang. She almost had wanted to when he slipped away in her arms. She was so close to slitting her own throat in anguish, but she had been brave, had fought... Until she found this box and this man who seemed to be able to promise her a way to make all of this go away.
He stood up excitedly, gesturing wildly. "To the stars, Katara! Have you ever looked up at the night sky and wondered if you could visit them? See what other worlds there might be?"
As a matter of fact, she had. It was something she and Aang had often wondered about on long nights when neither of them were sleeping. What would he think of her if she chose them over the war? What would he think of her if she ran away? Would he want her to be safe or keep fighting? So many questions...
"Well?" The Doctor- such a funny name for such a funny man- said, smiling. She lifted her head to look in his eyes, wondering still what she should do until her thoughts finally fit together coherently and she stood slowly, gracefully, and then shook her head. There was only one decision she could make.
"They need me here," she whispered, not even sure what "they" she was referring to- the spirits of her old friends or the world in general. "I can’t just run away now." And she couldn’t. Being offered that chance was all it took to make her see that. She knew what she wanted to do, but this war didn’t hinge on what she wanted.
The Doctor smiled, apparently understanding. He seemed to know much. Maybe one day when the war was over, she would meet him again and see what sorts of things she could learn from him... But not today. "You humans, always so suicidally noble."
She smiled back just a little. "I guess so," she replied. She let herself out the door and stepped back onto the battleground where nothing was left but the wind and a sea of corpses. She retched violently as the stench stung her nostrils, the shaking returning, the memories fighting their way back to the surface. She turned back to where she thought the blue box might be waiting for her, but found nothing there, as if it had never been there at all and the spirits had been playing tricks on her. In a way, it was a blessing. She might have been tempted to go back if it had still been behind her, and that was the last thing she could do.
She had a war to finish. If not for the world, then for her friends.
She couldn’t run away.
~*~
The Doctor returned to that world only once, when fifty years had passed since his first appearance. He knew the history of it well enough, which was why he had delighted in the idea of arriving on the day the war took a turn for the worse, and then for the better again that first time.. This second time was just to see what had become of the beautiful young girl who had declined his offer.
A statue was erected in the city they called Ba Sing Se and he hunched in the shadows, staring at it with awed eyes. It depicted four figures- at the front was a boy with a shaved head and eyes painted to look as if they were glowing as white as pure starlight. To his left, a tall young warrior in white and black war paint, his hand resting protectively on the shoulder of a young girl all in green, her head lowered so that her painstakingly carved bangs covered her face.
And closest to the boy with starlight for eyes, one arm draped around his shoulder, was her, looking every bit like an avenging angel, one arm raised to manipulate an arc of water that formed an arch around the entire statue, her hair falling into her face. Much detail had been taken to get her features perfect, as if it was vitally important everyone who passed by that statue knew what she looked like.
When the street began to clear as the sun began to set, he crept out of the shadows to read the inscription on the base, the language not at all unlike ancient Chinese. It listed four names- including hers- and described them as warriors who fell in the battle against the Fire Nation, but were vitally important of the liberation of the other three nations from their stranglehold. They had all died heroes- she most of all, for she had led them when they had no hope left.
His eyes lingered on Katara’s perfectly carved image. "So suicidally noble," he whispered. He couldn’t help but think that she wouldn’t have died if she had come with him... She wouldn’t have died, but she wouldn’t have been a hero. She would have seen amazing things, but she never would have won the war.
He could have taken all the pain away from her, but then she never would have gotten stronger.