***

Sensation fades, and within a blink, the energy around him overturned back to his body. 

"I knew you would show up. The ocean and the moon spirit always seemed inseparable." 

His body felt like it was floating, and light seemed to escape his eyes. 

"I see that you planned this," a frosty feminine voice sounded behind him. "But no matter how much you plan things, there will be outward interference that will ruin everything. Especially when you don't know anything."

The moon spirit had the humanoid form of a long silver-haired woman, with white pale skin, blue eyes, and long silver eyelashes. She is the kind of beauty that seems so perfect that most would assume that it is fake. There was simply no imperfection on her body.

Sokka turned around, feeling his heart start beating faster once he saw her. Truly the most beautiful woman in the world and even top models would pale in comparison. But that feeling was gone as soon as it came. He wasn't the kind of guy that would let his life be ruined by lust. "Well, I thought you would just be a big translucent moon."

She narrowed her eyes. "Is that all you have to say after threatening my life?"

"No, if I knew you were a beautiful woman, I would have never done that," Sokka cringed inwardly at the words that were coming out of his mouth. It was during these moments that the [Acting] skill made itself useful. 

'Except when killing the Evil Lady, heavily injuring Azula, and massacring some female Fire Nation soldiers… I didn't harm women. Yeah, I was bullshitting her here.'

Sokka would kick a beautiful woman in the face without a second thought if they got in his way. But of course, he had to keep up his 'gentlemanly' demeanor. Who didn't like a gentleman? Everyone did. Though he had a feeling that the Moon Spirit already knew the kind of man he was.

His experience in dealing with thousands of year old women was lacking, to say the least. Unlike the young, impressionable women he had charmed until now, his attempts this time were useless as Tui, the moon spirit sent him a cold glare. Literally, as the tip of his fingers started freezing as she kept looking at him. "I should destroy your existence for speaking like. A human who hasn't even lived two decades assumes that he knows everything there is to the world."

"I never claimed that. Admittedly, there is very little I know about this world, especially spirits," he admitted, his smile slipping off. "But aren't you the ones being arrogant? Just because you have lived thousands of years. Don't assume you know everything, or that age somehow makes you wiser than others."

"With age comes wisdom, young man," Tui snorted, showing her clear annoyance at his words. 

"Oh yeah, I am sure that there is a lot of experience and wisdom to be had in swimming in a pond for thousands of years," Sokka added sarcastically. He wasn't going to back down, or show fear here. This was his domain, and the two spirits seemed unaware of where Sokka's power was coming from. In his eyes, they were the ones being naive here.

Still, Tui had a chilly energy burst out of her that made him feel full and weightless as if a balloon full of helium and about to pop. The power of the moon was overwhelming Sokka's body, but he didn't show an ounce of fear. 

Like before, a strange, non-existent force seemed to come out of nowhere and a rift opened in space, causing the Moon Spirit's aura to disperse as soon as it got close to harming Sokka. Even the tips of his finger that were frozen, returned to normal.

"What was that?" Tui muttered, feeling like she lost connection to her energy for a split second. The existence of such a force baffled them. It seemed like an ant blocking a human foot from stepping on them. It made no sense. 

Sokka suddenly swung his arm, and even he seemed to be surprised as a sudden unnatural force burst out pushing back even the two powerful spirits. That was when space seemed to warp. 

*CRACK!*

The space around him started to break, as a sudden tremor appeared and he got a killer headache as if someone was drilling at his brain. Sokka closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, he was lying on the lush green grass, close to the pond and sleeping next to Katara. Getting up, he stretched and opened the [Notifications].

[Your Wisdom has increased by 1 for tricking ancient spirits]

[Due to finding a loophole in the spirit hall, where you're supposed to contemplate on your being, intelligence increased by 1]

[Spear Mastery has experienced a rapid increase in level]

[Spear Mastery (Lvl 55) -> (Lvl 60)]

Looking towards the pond, he smiled when he saw the Moon and Ocean spirits circling each other like always. "Now I know for sure that you can hear me even this way. Since our negotiations initially went wrong, let's admit that we are both equal."

He dipped his hand in the water and could feel the warmth engulfing his palm. The water also felt heavy, like mucus. Suddenly the eyes of the Ocean Spirit shone and the water started turning bright. 

It was at that moment Katara woke up. "Huh? How did I fall asleep?"

Looking towards the pond, she saw a bright light coming out of it and Sokka's figure stood amongst it.

Plop!

Suddenly he sank into the pond that wasn't any deeper than up to the knee. Katara hurriedly went towards the pond and saw her brother at the bottom of the pond. There the two fish swam in circles around his face. 

Sokka's eyes were shining in dark blue light and it reminded Katara of Aang when he was in his Avatar State. 

"Katara, stay back," Sokka said, his voice sounding clear even though he was underwater. Also, it seemed like many people were speaking at the same time when he spoke. "See you in a bit."

Suddenly his figure seemed to dissipate and so did the two fish. The light around the pond dissipated, and it returned to what it was before as if all that had happened was just a hallucination. 

"What the hell was that?" wondered Katara, unable to comprehend what had just happened. But she was sure of one thing, her brother had somehow planned all of this and didn't seem to be in danger. 

"When he comes back, I can no longer just ignore what has been happening," she said, with a resolute gaze. It had been quite a while now since Katara suspected something, and she needed Sokka to answer her questions. 

***

Azula stood on the heck of her ship, clutching at her bandaged stomach, but she stood tall, unwavering. Showing the confidence that a royal should have. Ty Lee and Mai stood next to her, ready to support their friend. 

"I think Kuzon will be okay, Azula," Ty Lee tried to reassure her friend. But Mai shook her head, signaling the circus girl to stop talking. The last thing Azula needed right now was to worry about Kuzon's wellbeing. 

"Tonight we will-" Azula started talking but was interrupted as the ship started shaking. The whole ocean around them started shining in bright light. "What's going on?"

Her question was answered soon, as something she couldn't predict even in her wildest dreams happened.