It was just an average day. I was on my way home from the nearby convenience store with a bag full of small snacks to get me through my next binge watching session of whatever catches my eye on Netflix.
After I went to bed I had quite a terrible nightmare. I couldn't quite recall what it was about but all that really matters is that I woke up dead. So, here I.... Float. In an expansive six by six cubicle with a purple humanoid creature. The creature in question is filling out some kind of paperwork, occasionally glancing up at me.
"Uuhm, excuse me." I somehow voice out in spite of my lack of physical form.
"Oh?! You reached a lucid state much quicker than usual. I assume you're aware of your circumstance?"
"I mean, I guess. Is this how you decide who goes to heaven or hell?"
"Not quite. I'm in charge of your last batch of reincarnations. Unfortunately you only have one world to choose from because you were the last in line. However, you also get to have two wishes!" The creature produces a party popper and sets it off.
"Are there limits on the potency of my wishes?"
"Nothing that can directly warp reality, effect causality, create multiple alternate timelines, manufacture pocket dimensions, and just generally breaks the rules of the world you're going to."
"And just what world are you sending me to?"
"The world of Avatar, as Sokka himself."
"Can I change that without a wish?"
"Nope."
Vocalizing a long groan I take a moment to consider what wishes I would like best in the world of Steven Universe.
"First, I guess I'd like to wish for the ability to master all forms of bending. Second, I suppose I'd like an insane level of talent, something like I can perform or learn to perform any move faster than anyone else. This would ideally apply to any form of learning but I'd be fine if it only applies to fighting."
"Those seem a bit tame compared to the last few, but it's not my job to judge, it's my job to send you on your way. Have fun!" The creature snaps its vaguely finger like appendages as everything goes dark.
When I come to I notice I'm upside-down, a notably tender soreness on my head as what I assume to be snow coating my whole body, the method I use to determine my orientation being the immense pressure on my neck. The sound of snow being frantically shoveled away above me. Eventually light shines through as my body is able to flop down, finally relieving the pressure on my neck as I groan.
"Oh thank goodness! Sokka is fine everyone! Thanks for your help!"
Someone turns me over, exposing my freezing face to the slightly less freezing air. "I don't feel fine." I pry my eyes open to see the face of my new sister, Katara.
"You need to be more careful when you're building your little watchtowers. You can seriously hurt yourself."
"True, I don't even know why I was doing it."
She helps me get to my feet as I steady myself. I take stock of my body and all the feelings in it. The first thing I notice is a new energy of some kind within me, one that resonates with the air and snow around me, it bubbles within me as if wanting to be released in a burst of burning power.
*This must be the feeling of being able to bend all these elements. The feeling of chi within me.*
"Katara, I really don't feel so good." I lurch over, feigning a pain in my side.
"Sokka, what's wrong?" She rubs my back with one hand, supporting my weight with the other.
"It, there's, aaah!" I put forth all zero hours of my acting practice as I lash out with my arms swinging in front of me, I push forth the energy within me wildly causing two walls of spikes made from ice to suddenly shoot from the ground.
Katara and the small number of women and children left in the southern water tribe gasp.
"You're a water bender too! This is great! We can learn about it together now!" Katara hugs me tightly.
I return her hug, holding her tightly. "I can't wait".
Flash forward a few months, my and Katara's birthdays pass, making me 15 and her 14. In that time I managed to get enough of a grasp on my water bending to create some small structures from ice for our people.
Igloos are nice and all but I thought they'd like a more sturdy structure. I also managed to get a grasp on moving large bodies of water and even managed to replicate that water torrent that you lift yourself up in. With my insane progress I also took to guiding Katara in what I've learned, making her about as skilled as she was when she fought Pakku for being a sexist rat.
So far I haven't tried blood bending, but I have felt a connection to the water flowing in other people's bodies. The passing of time aside, today me and Katara have gone fishing together.
I unleash a long drawn out sigh, "Jeez, there's almost no fish out here today."
"Yeah, no kidding. There's almost always a school or two by now."
"Maybe we should call it a day, it's not like the village is struggling." I suggest.
"Let's just give it some more time, maybe it's just a slow day." On cue our boat gets taken by a strong current and begins getting pulled down a path with tons of big ice chunks threatening to crush our boat.
I could easily remove us from this path but I let us get swept along, only destroying the ice in our path. After roughly a minute our boat comes to a sudden uncanny stop in front of a huge iceberg.
"There's something strange about all this." Katara voices her concern.
"Could be something spirit world related, maybe they want us to do something with this iceberg." I feign ignorance.
"I don't know, maybe we really should get going. I don't want the others to worry." Katara starts using bending only for me to place a hand on her arm, shaking my head.
"It'll be fine, remember our training." After reassuring her I begin splitting the ice apart until the portion containing Aang floats to the surface.
"Whoa, it looks like there's a person inside there."
While she maintains her moment of awe I move to break the boy and his pet free unleashing the large pillar of light that sets the original series of events in motion.
As Aang falls limp I create a slide for him that comes to an end with him sitting up. "Interesting, a living boy. I can tell you're at least barely conscious boy. What's your name and what was with that insane spiritual energy?"
Aang stretches himself out as he stands,"my name's Aang, I don't know anything about spiritual energy though."
"Did you know you were stuck inside an iceberg?" Katara asks.
"Not really, the last thing I remember was being caught in a storm and then I suddenly woke up here. Where is here by the way? Also who're you two?"
"This is the south pole, I'm Sokka and this is my sister Katara. Once you wake up your beast we can take you back to our tribe."
"He's no beast, this is Appa, my flying bison." Aang hops on Appa's face and peels his eyelid open, "come on buddy, it's time to wake up."
The bison roars as it awakens, licking Aang. "Hahaha, good morning to you too buddy!"
Aang sneezes shortly thereafter, revealing his airbender status by shooting about 20 feet into the air.
Acting like I don't know about the plot while trying to get it to kick off is hard. With my quick thinking I try to act surprised, "Oh, an airbender. You're one of a kind. Tell me, do you know of the airbender genocide that took place at the start of the war?"
"Sokka! You can't just ask people about their culture being genocided!" Katara complains.
"The what and what? I don't know anything about a war, and it would be impossible to take out the airbenders. You see, the only way to reach an air temple would be with a flying bison."
"So it seems you must have been frozen for 100 years at the least. Anyway, gran gran will wanna see you." I begin heading out using my bending to guide my boat as I land in it.
"Wait up Sokka!" Katara creates Ice platforms under her feet as she runs to catch up with the boat, leaving Aang by himself as he gets Appa to float in the water behind us.
Arriving at the village everyone notices our approach courtesy of Appa. Katara takes the lead in introducing Aang to the village while I go and make him his own little ice hut.
After the introductions are over Aang decides to fly to show off to the kids. He crashes into an ice tower and plummets into the snow below. Being kind of heart, and looking for any excuse to fake gaining a new power, I rush to his aid. I take his hand and help him to his feet. Once he's steady I begin groaning, clutching at my head as I hunch over. I use my water bending to force the contents of my stomach out as I create some distance between me and Aang.
"Sokka!" My sister calls to me, rushing to try and support me.
"Aaah!!!" I shout in faux pain as the air around me kicks up in a sudden torrent knocking Katara back as well as destroying the not in use ice tower. I fall over face first, in a spot away from where I vomited.
Aang and Katara rush up to me and turn me around. "Are you alright?" My loving sister asks.
"W-was that, air bending?" Aang wonders allowed, a hint of worry and sadness in his voice.
After a moment of being held in Katara's warm arms I open my eyes. I turn my head around looking for Aang and make eye contact with him. "You're the Avatar. I saw some of your past lives, and then your Avatar spirit somehow touched me." I bring myself to my feet with the aid of Katara.
Katara's eyes light up. "You're the Avatar?! That's great! You can bring balance back to the four nations!"
"Hehe, yeah, that's me. The Avatar." Aang shivers in discomfort admitting it.
"I don't know exactly what happened we touched outside of those memories, but I suddenly feel a stronger connection with the world. There's a resonance between my body and the elements." I take a stance and begin going through different motions.
"What do you mean Sokka?" Katara asks.
"Watch." I create an ice pillar, a gust of air that ruffles everyone's hair and clothing, a small burst of flame that makes everyone gasp, and finally I pull forth some earth from deep beneath the ice creating a small pillar of stone.
""""Whoa"""" The crowd speaks in unity.
"Wait, isn't bending all those elements supposed to be exclusive to the Avatar?" Katara asks.
I put my hand to my chin in contemplation. "Normally, but like I said, something happened. From the memories I got bending multiple elements can be accomplished by anyone in theory, if we have Lion Turtles on hand."
"This is great! We can master the elements together!" Aang chimes in.
"True, I'd certainly like to begin mastering my new abilities and who better to learn with than the Avatar himself." I bow to him.
"We can make our first stop the air temple. That way we can check on the other air benders." Aang naively states.
"Aang...." Katara stops unable to bring herself to squash this little boy's hopes.
I however, face no such hurdle, "the fire nation developed a new weapon specifically to target the air nomads as their first target in fear of the rebirth of the Avatar. I don't mean to stomp on your hopes but it's important that you keep your expectations tempered."
"You'll see, once we get there you'll probably even get to taste some of our special desserts." Aang trails off into the topic of the air nomads famous cakes.
Sighing I turn to leave, "before we leave I have some things I'd like to do for the village. Let me know when you're ready to go."
The day goes by in the blink of an eye. I managed to replace the ground of our small village with earth pulled from beneath the ice, I also did the same with a number of homes. This way they can stay warmer and can more comfortably use fires inside.
Come dawn the next day I continued my work finishing it off by the time Zuko's ship slammed into our new earthen wall.
His troops pile into the village as he demands the Avatar. Before he gets impatient I step forward. "I'm the Avatar!" I use a massive wave of water to separate his troops from our people before freezing them in place. I then blast Zuko with fire which he easily deflects.
"I was expecting you to be a little older." He says coming at me launching a small flurry of fire balls.
Talking this chance I use my water bending to defend as I study his stance while we exchange blows. My clothes get notably singed by a number of his attacks that broke my defense, but after a minute we were on even terms.
I switched to exclusively fire bending as we kept exchanging blows until eventually I took the upper hand. I knocked the prince off balance. His back on the ground and eyes filled with indignation staring up at me.
I aim my fist at his face, "Retreat, I won't give you a second chance."
"I refuse!" He swipes his legs trying to catch me off guard however, I easily avoid it.
I launch my fire but before it can connect Iroh suddenly appears in my vision catching my hand.
Separating from me Iroh helps his nephew up, "Perhaps it's best we retreat for the time being Prince Zuko, the crew is almost entirely encased in ice and we need time to get out bearings."
"Uncle, I refuse to leave when the Avatar is right in front of me! This is my chance to restore my honor!"
To help the boy out I come up with an offer. "Be reasonable Prince, retreat and I'll unfreeze your men. You'll have a chance to fight another day. I'll even tell you where I'm going next."
"How do I know you're not just going to mislead me!"
"Because, I will be looking forward to fighting with your uncle, I've already learned all I can from fighting you." I give him my best shit eating grin.
"argh!" He throws a fist of flame at me that I catch in a manner similar to how Iroh caught mine.
"I haven't used water bending during the entire second half of our fight. Take my deal while you still can."
"Fine. Everyone retreat!" Zuko turns around seeing all his men frozen and helpless.
I melt all the ice, releasing them. "My next stop is the North Pole. It'll take me roughly a month or two to get there. I might make some stops on the way. We're going by flying so our route won't be bound by normal boat routes and subject to random stops based on whims."
After Zuko's evacuation is complete Katara and Aang come up to me.
"Sokka that was amazing!" "Sokka that was dangerous!" They voice their opinions simultaneously, Aang liking it and Katara being discontent.
"It's fine sis, I bought us some time and directed them away from our home. Win-win." I hug her to try and comfort her.
"That's not the point! What if you got hurt! You can't just put yourself in harm's way like that!" She slams her first into my chest ineffectually.
"I'm sorry okay. I just couldn't let them do anything to my precious little sister."
"Sokka, you were like a fire bending master at the end there! You gotta teach me how to do that." Aang interrupts our sibling moment.
I eyeball the boy. "I'm far from having mastered fire bending, but I'll teach you what I picked up after you get some water bending under your belt. Anyway, we should leave, I'm hungry for adventure."