Tale Of Two Avatars

The Awakening

Aang's POV:

I feel my eyes fluttering open, instantly greeted by the sight of a metal ceiling. The pain from our previous ordeal remained within me, dominating every part of my body. I sit up, my vision slowly turning a little blurry before everything became normal again. I look down at myself, seeing bandages wrapped over a few parts of my body. 

I look across the room, seeing Suzume lying on a bed unconscious though unlike me, her body was devoid of any bandages and she looked perfectly fine. 'Oh no, she must've experienced the pain that I experienced. It must've been our spiritual bond. She's probably unconscious because of me.'

I make my way out of bed, slowly bringing myself over to her and sitting beside her, gazing at her beautiful face in repose and her now unkempt long curly hair, it looks like she decided to let it grow, which I kinda liked, to be honest. 

I grab her hand gently, placing it in mine and holding it in place, waiting and hoping for her to wake up. 'Come on Suzume, please.'

A few moments later, I see her eyes flutter open and I breathe a sigh of relief, feeling my lips curling into a broad grin. 

Suzume's POV:

I feel myself awakening, my eyes panning upwards and catching sight of a smiling Aang, bandaged in many areas and his head now full of hair. I feel something in my hand and when I glance at them, I find Aang's hand in mine, grasping it firmly. 

I rise slowly from my bed with Aang's help, feeling pain shooting up my body. I groan sharply and Aang looks at me in concern. "You okay?"

"Don't worry about me. I should be asking you that question," I smiled, hugging him softly. "I thought you were dead and I thought I was too."

"Me too," Aang hugged back gently, releasing it shortly afterwards, planting a kiss on my cheek and blushing. "I'm just glad you're okay."

I kiss him back, feeling my cheeks heat up. "I'm glad you're okay too. Where are we anyway?" My eyes rove around the room, noticing the Fire Nation banner that decked the room. "Oh boy." I groaned in frustration and an abrupt pain pierces my sides, making me grip them tightly.  

"Suzume," Aang gazes at me in solicitude, closing his eyes in similar pain. "You have to calm down. Your anger won't help your condition or mine."

I calm myself down, taking a few deep breaths to recompose myself and feeling the tide of pain receding. "Sorry about that. We'll just have to fight our way out it seems."

"Suzume, we're in no condition to fight," Aang reminded. "Just look at us."

"Well, it's the only option we have." I spot two of our airbending staff on the floor and I get up from the bed weakly, releasing my hand from Aang's and hobble over to retrieve my staff. I toss Aang his staff and I use my staff as a walking stick, seeing Aang emulate my actions. 

Aang walks in front of me, going over to the door of our room before I could reach it. "You should stay behind me Suzume, I don't want you to get hurt again because of me." 

"Aang," I control my anger to the best of my ability, again taking a few deep breaths to calm myself. "We're both struggling right now so it's best if we stick together. It wasn't your fault I got hurt."

"But," Aang paused before nodding, knowing that he wasn't going to win an argument against me.

I give him a weak smile of approval, going over to the door with him. He opens the door slightly and both of us stumble out slowly into a dimly lit hallway, leaning against its walls for support.

We were about to round a corner when we hear chattering. We spot the source of chatter in the form of two Fire Nation soldiers, quickly hiding back in the hallway. We quickly exchange glances, both of us nodding and understanding the plan. We fire off blasts of air at the Fire Nation soldiers with the energy that we had, only managing to generate weak ones.