Chapter 64: Cost of Freedom (1)

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"And up, and down. Yep, just like that, gently," Katara spoke calmly as if she was in a completely different state of mind than before. The moment of teasing had passed and Katara now taught what little she knew. The two in front of each other with two wooden barrels in the middle. Mimicking Katara's stance, Nik gently waved his outstretched arms up and down.

He did this while focusing on the opening of the barrel. As he did this, Nik began to consciously feel something slipping out of him but as it did, he registered an external entity entering his control and that pulled his attention to the surface of the water in the barrel shuddering and rising up slowly. The pace of the rise grew as it was soon pulled out of the barrel and with a gaze full of fascination, Nik waved his hands down and the water entered the barrel gently.

"Whoa..." he mumbled, unconsciously breaking off from that connection. Yes, there was exhaustion, but nowhere near he had expected it to be now that he tried things without panicking all of a sudden.

Meanwhile, Katara had already stopped in her tracks and gazed at Nik with a dazed expression.

"Did you... move the entire volume in the barrel?" As Katara questioned, she recalled how even in the attack previously Nik had subconsciously moved the water entirely within the barrel. The situation was tense back then and didn't give her a chance to think much but now...

"I guess," Nik muttered as he entered the stance once again, wanting to try it out. Concentrating, he began to gently sway his arms up and down as he experienced his 'something' escaping his body and allowing him to form a connection with the entirety of the barrel when he heard Katara speak up, "Try and reduce the volume to control."

She had a strange expression and Nik knew she was struggling to control the volume within a barrel, but following her instructions, Nik tried to reduce the area of control. What else could he do but think of it? There were no clear instructions. Water moved through his will and the movements of his body, the latter being optional in some cases as proven by Bumi, but to reduce the section of control could only be depended on the instinctual feeling.

Nik frowned as he made the entirety of water within the barrel fly up gently before settling it down as he shook his head, "I don't know how to do that..."

Katara nodded and then glanced at the scroll belted on her waist.

"We should practice this basic move first then until you can control any section of water with the largest limit being the volume of a barrel," she explained as Nik nodded.

With that, the duo began to simply pull and push water up and down in the barrel. And only after three minutes did Nik begin to feel tired which caused him to finally stop and question Katara about it. Her experiences suggested that bending elements exhaust the bender based on the complexity and the magnitude of bending. However, as it is with physical training, with enough rest and practice, not only did Katara's reserves for bending grow, but years of simply pushing and pulling, or changing the temperature of water now allowed her to master a few moves from the scroll easily.

"Now I get why Suki complains about you," Katara scoffed a chuckle as she sat down after a few minutes of practice, too.

"She does?" Nik blinked.

"Yep, when you blacked out. Something about how even if unskilled, you could tire her out," Katara smiled but the hint of envy in her eyes couldn't be more obvious.

"I'm not that unskilled," Nik shrugged.

"You couldn't even reduce the magnitude of your control. I'd say you're pretty unskilled," Katara eyed him.

"Or, I'm a genius who simply cannot control his talents. It could be either of the two but I think my version is the better one," Nik smiled as Katara's lips twitched.

Seeing her silent, Nik stood up with a grunt, "Well, I'm going to practice that wave motion again."

"You've already recovered?" Katara questioned as he shrugged, "I wasn't too exhausted in the first place, not to the point of falling at least."

Nik wouldn't stop for anything at this point. They weren't too deep into the thicket so the threat of wild animals was minimal, too. Seeing Nik pulling and pushing the water out and into the barrel, Katara glanced towards Suki and then hesitated. Confirming that she was sleeping, Katara spoke up, "Nik... did you feel helpless... when you were caught in that dungeon by that Fire Nation Admiral."

"Zhao," Nik added, "And if possible, I wouldn't want to recall a physically painful event."

"Sorry," Katara grew quiet with the sound of water being bent filtering into the surroundings. Only after a few minutes did he open up.

"I didn't feel helpless against Zhao. I could run whenever I wanted to and I thought if some injuries can allow me to stay and possibly help Aang then it would be worth it... well, that plan was a failure. The kid needed no protection in the first place...

But if it is being helpless... I felt it when the woman I loved, you know, platonically, didn't love me back, or didn't feel the same way I did."

"... what's platonic?"

Katara inquired.

"Affection not borne from sexual interests," Nik kept it concise, "Like affection between siblings... friends, or a parent and her child."

Nik grew silent as he had almost lost control of the water floating in front of him.

"I see... what did you do then?"

"I'm here," Nik replied.

"No, I meant..."

"I know what you mean," Nik exhaled as he returned the water into the barrel. Smiling, he glanced at Katara, "There are no tricks, I guess. Katara, if you feel helpless, the only course of action is to either be so resourceful that you don't need to experience helplessness or... find help."

"You mean depend on someone else?" Katara frowned.

"There's nothing wrong with that," Nik leaned against the barrel and looked at her, "So? I've told you my sob story. What's yours? Why the sudden interest in experiences of futility?"

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Katara lowered her head and slowly began, "When we were trapped in that fog... I saw my mother. She was bleeding. I now know how to bend and I could have healed her but... I couldn't bend in that location. I... only watched, and cried like a helpless little girl I once was." Her gaze dimmed as she hugged her knees, "You know, I thought that I hated the fire nation soldier who killed her. I still do, slightly... but my experiences now tell me how wrong I was and how misguided my anger happened to be. I just feel so... helpless."

Katara struggled with her words and fought back her sobs yet a thin trail of tears leaked through the corner of her left eye as she gritted her teeth.

"I'm sorry," Nik whispered and added with a gentle smile, "If there comes a day that you feel like that again, and I happen to be around, meet me. I will try and help you."

"If there comes a day?" Katara looked up, her eyes slightly red, "I am feeling helpless right now. What? Is there anything you can do to help me?" Her words choked in the middle as she scowled with tears finally spilling out after the admittance while Nik pushed himself off of the barrel and sat next to Katara.

"Of course, I have something that can help," he mumbled as his hand sneaked past Katara's shoulder and pushed the side of her head against his shoulder. Katara's eyes widened as Nik firmly hugged her shoulder and whispered, "You can cry here. It would help and I won't say anything. To anyone."

Still biting her lips, Katara's vision turned blurred and her whimpers turned into soft wailing as she hugged Nik and began crying her eyes out.

'It's too late to stop pretending to be asleep... right?' Suki thought silently. She was already awake by the point Katara raised her voice in the middle of the conversation but she felt greatly relieved. Even though she didn't get to share her doubts herself, this helped clear her mind greatly.

---

"I told you. Use your opponent's strength against them," Suki frowned as she spoke and acted simultaneously with her arms coiling around Nik's hand as she twisted her body and flipped Nik on his back as he struck the ground with a thud, making him cough in pain.

"That's... truly unfair," Nik gasped, trying to catch his breath as Katara sat a bit away, recollecting herself, too. It has been two days since they left the village targetted by the freedom fighters and Suki seemed to have strangely dropped the topic of sharing her visions in the world of fog entirely.

"Everything is fair in love and war," Suki grinned, "And we love to train you. Isn't that right?" She glanced back, making Katara smile, "Yes. It's been entertaining for us, too."

"You both are just jealous," Nik decided to finally be ruthless, "That it takes the two of you to achieve what Michi attained in half the time!" He gasped a lie but seeing the duo's expression crumble, Nik began to chuckle and sigh heavily in between.

"That's not the same!" Katara retorted.

"You can try that, too. The results will be the same," Nik smiled and sprawled back completely.

"He's just overcompensating for not being able to keep up," Suki interjected with a sly smirk as Nik slowly sat up, "Not really. I'm just pointing out the truth."

Now being able to take breaks, the duo had tacitly decided to train him simultaneously. Well, Suki trained him but Nik trained 'with' Katara. There was a difference. Though a bit better, Katara was essentially a novice, just like him, and thus when they trained, it was mostly learning from each other and their true teacher— the waterbending scroll.

After a moment's rest, Nik tried to pull the sweat off of him but he failed. To him, controlling a larger body and making more wave-like moves came easy but since he was a beginner, improvements were not easy to come. One thing Nik did realize, however, was that the visions and the screeching sounds had stopped for the time being, and focusing on waterbending seemed to be leaving him with no spare energy to accidentally bend air by exhaling too loudly or softly.

"When do you think they will arrive?" Suki changed the topic and looked up at the sky with the dawn barely lighting it up.

"In a day or two, probably. Even with Appa, they would need to rest while covering the distance and that's assuming Zhao does get released by now. Else, Aang might just want to stay in the academy more." Nik spoke up.

"Anyway," Katara smiled, "We'll be reaching the nearest colony by noon. They ought to stop by the area so we can wait there for the day."

"A colony, huh," Suki mumbled as she sat down beside Nik, "I don't know what to expect. Isn't it the same as a village?"

"Not according to the villagers," Katara mumbled with a sigh.

The war lasted for over a hundred years. The Fire Nation, instead of destroying villages in the settlements they had conquered, began to colonize them instead and this was one of the major reasons why the Fire Nation won the war eventually. They integrated everything with their culture and citizens and even if there are other elemental benders in the colony, they are not part of the Earth Kingdom or the Water Tribe. Instead, they are the citizens under the Pheonix King.

"One thing is for sure. They will have high security and probably a cost of entrance..." Nik frowned.

"Good thing we have the reward given by the chief from the last village," Katara grunted.

"We don't. I destroyed it, remember? You said so."

"Wait, really?" Katara gasped, "I thought you were trying to make me feel better."

Nik rolled his eyes, "Well, there you go. Next time you want me to fake-destroy coins, just wink after making yourself clear."

"Don't worry, we'll manage," Suki shrugged as Nik nudged her shoulder, "So? Do you require another one of my massages?"

"Hmph, isn't that excuse getting old?" Suki inquired and glanced at Nik with a crafty expression only for him to blink innocently, "Excuse for what?"

Suki's lips twitched as she continued to match his gaze until she finally snorted, "Whatever."

"Fine," Nik shrugged, "Katara, do you want to a massage?"

Katara subconsciously looked at Suki and seeing the woman glance in return with a great intent, the waterbender smiled.

"Maybe I will—"

At this point, Nik frowned and looked sideways.

"There's someone near us... only one." Nik whispered softly as Katara stopped in her tracks.

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