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Chapter 57 - I will save them my way!

***
As the volcano started flowing, Sokka immediately went towards the civilians, most were frozen in fear and shock. "Everyone! Move it! Earthbenders, create walls! Don't grab anything, just run!"

That simple shout woke them up, and people started running in the opposite direction. While the earthbenders made walls, he ordered them where to make canals. Sokka made sure to instruct the panicked men clearly, so they didn't mess up.

Aang on the other hand stared at the rushing lava fearfully and swallowed. But he took a deep breath to calm himself. Sokka had told him the plan, and it was to try and hold out as long as they could. So the civilians could escape.

Katara was there to help him too, but she was even less confident in being able to do much here. Because she had very little water to work with and the village well was nowhere near enough water to stop a volcano either. 

Soon, the lava came as a tidal wave and Aang immediately used his airbending to cool off heaps of lava. Earthbenders stood atop the village walls, creating canals and trying to redirect the lava away. 

Katara too had been able to help more than she thought because as Sokka instructed her, she was able to catch any fire debris with water and stop it from hitting the villagers.

Sokka on the other hand instructed and gathered the villagers in one place. Leading the earthbenders to raise a platform higher than the walls and that it would lift all of the villagers.

The shape of the platform was like that of a triangle and it would split the lava wave in two when it hit. Escaping from the village wasn't an option, and Sokka knew that they couldn't get to the sea in time because this village was deep in the mountains.

Instead, what they had to do was resist and fight.

But Aang alone wasn't able to stop all of the lava, and half of the village and a couple of earthbenders die, as debris slides down the mountain as they are pushed by the molten rock.  

Sokka observed this calmly, the screams of the men not bothering him, nor was the smell of melted off flesh. The others were shocked and terrified.

"Keep your mind on the task to be done if you don't want to die!" He once again made sure to say something to keep the people's mind away from what kind of painful death they could have.

This time he wasn't addressing just the villagers, but Aang and Katara too. On the original timeline, the villagers had been prepared so they had been able to somewhat stop anyone from dying. That was due to Aang and Katara manipulating the clouds and making Aunt Wu look at them again.

But Sokka knew that was just a temporary solution. By the end of the episode, people still had trusted Aunt Wu's predictions. So what about when the next volcano came? Would Aang be there each time to save them?

Sokka had made the decision, he will save people his way. Tolerating stupidity was the last thing he would want to do. If he was going to bother saving someone, then he would do it the right way.

Saving them and then letting them die by their naivety again would trump his efforts and make it useless. So even as the hot air licked his dry skin, he never faltered even once. Knowing that if he decided to do something, he will see it to the end.

**
For a whole hour, Aang continued cooling off the lava around the village. With Katara helping him, and Sokka protecting Katara, cutting anything dangerous that fame within her vicinity. The earthbenders followed Sokka's orders religiously and were able to make a huge contribution to their efforts too.

By now everyone was tired, and the heat was dehydrating everyone else except Sokka, who seemed okay. Though Katara noticed that his movements were slower than usual.

'He is getting tired too.' She thought. "We can't hold on much longer."

Suddenly, a bubble rose amongst the lava, and the molten rock splattered towards Aang. He was too distracted and tired to notice it.

"Aang!! Look out!!" Katara yelled at him, and even though the Avatar turned around, it was too late.

BOOOOM!!!

That was when a torrent of water burst through the lava. Forming a dome of ice around Aang, and taking the molten rock head-on.

"Thanks, Katara," Aang thanked her. "I didn't know you could do that."

"I can't…" muttered Katara, pointing towards a further spot of the walls. There stood a familiar, silver-haired man with three red lines on his face and blue armor. 

They knew him, he was Tobirama, the man that had stopped them from unknowingly destroying a village in the past, due to Jet tricking them.

Katara was shocked, how was he able to pull out water from under the lava? Was he someone strong enough to pull up water from the deep underground rivers? Even she knew that was something absurd.

He melodically raises his hands, and the frozen water turns back into liquid. Katara is entranced by the feat of waterbending that was happening in front of her. It was nothing short of amazing.

This was no normal man waterbending but it seemed more like the Avatar. Though Katara hadn't met other waterbenders she instinctively knew that this man was one of the strongest out there.

"Waterbending isn't all about power, young girl, fighting against strong enemies doesn't necessarily have to be a head-on fight," said Tobirama, looking at Katara. He took a deep breath and controlled a huge wave of water. He used the water to cool off the lava repeatedly, slowly but surely creating a wall of obsidian. Using the volcano's power against itself. "At least this time you are saving a village instead of destroying it."

Katara kept staring in amazement, this was like something she had never seen before. Even from such a simple display, she could tell that it was something she might never be able to do.

Slowly he created a triangular shape, with a sharp tip in front of the village that split the lava in two. Making it go around the village. Something that they had been struggling for hours, had been handled by the man in minutes.

Initially, Katara had thought that waterbending in here would be useless as the lava was too hot, it would only evaporate the water. 

The man looked at the villagers, and his eyes seemed to light up with joy. 

Katara wanted to ask Tobirama to teach her waterbending but... she felt inadequate in herself. She wanted to thank him at least, but as she looked up, she only saw a slow mist spreading from the place where he had been.

****
-Sokka POV-

I stealthily moved alongside the wall and used the mist to hide my movements. Going to my water clone, that was slower than the real me, but many should just attribute that to me getting tired. 

Dismissing it, I was behind my sister, back into my normal form I put a hand on her shoulder. "Hey~ Katara, stop looking with starry eyes at a weird-looking person who creepily disappears after doing something."

She came to her senses and muttered. "A great waterbender and warrior."

"...." I guess I am never telling her who he really was.

Also, I doubt she would be impressed if she knew that I had just put water barrels slightly below ground. So the feat of waterbending that I did wasn't as amazing as it seemed. 

On top of it all, even that was tiring as hell, just pulling such huge amounts of water and moving it around wasn't easy. 

I went toward Aang and made sure that he was okay. "Are you hurt anywhere?"

"No," he said, but a smile slowly came to his face as he glanced at the structure made of obsidian. "But that guy is an amazing waterbender, I wish we could have had him as our waterbending master."

Sorry Aang, but that was just the illusion of greatness. Not anything special. "So, it seems like Aunt Wu was wrong. Wonder how the villagers will treat her from now on?"

Aang seemed worried. Some families had lost everything and would try to find someone to blame. That person would most likely be Aunt Wu.

Aang jumps down, and lands in the middle of the platform the villagers were on. They were already looking at Aunt Wu with hatred in their eyes.

"It's because of you that we almost died!"

"I lost my home!"

"My husband died!"

The villagers yelled at her in anger, Aunt Wu looked at the ground, unsure of anything. 

As expected, she too believed in her fate reading. 

"I think everyone should try and calm down," Aang intervened. "Aunt Wu wouldn't want the village to be destroyed either. She just made a mistake."

It seems like Aang got better with words. But still, he needed to be more convincing. Though the people weren't going to rip apart Aunt Wu right in front of one of their saviors. As soon as we are gone, she will be in deep trouble.

I let Aang handle this one. Aunt Wu would have to leave the village and retire, but she already had enough funds to live a good life. Her house wasn't burned either. Her assistant would have to go with her too because once Aunt Wu was gone, the villagers' hatred would go for the little girl.

She had said that the village wouldn't be destroyed. But half of it had crumbled down. There was no excuse for her predictions now.

Aunt Wu must be feeling deeply regretful too. Because if her readings she believed in were wrong all along, then each time she had said something in the past, it had put a person in danger.

Well, this was what I had wanted from the beginning. Now people won't rely on fate and will check next time, each year if the volcano was about to erupt.

**
In the end, everything ended as I had wanted. Aunt Wu retired and took her assistant with her. 

I didn't care if fate reading was done normally. Because when people don't believe it to such an extreme effect, then it wouldn't have been harmful.

While on Appa's back, we set off, and I looked at the village as we left it. 

Has this been the right decision?

Such thoughts did cross my mind. But it was useless to think about them now. Maybe Aunt Wu could have lived and kept reading others' fates and nothing would have happened. 

But, I was confident that I made the right decision with the information I had at the time. That's the best anyone could hope for.

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