Title: Priorities
Author: RedNovember
Word Count: N/A
Warnings: Death
Comments: Written at 4:01 AM in the morning. Nothing much else. EXCEPT that I decided to turn this one-shot into a collection of one-shots at the suggestion of Dracori. So it's more than one ficlet now. Hope that makes you happy. This one is very open to interpretation.

Priorities

Victory came eventually, with the bright gouts of flame and whirling tornados and quaking earth under a muffled black sky lit with the coming of a second sun. Souzen's Comet.

It seemed brighter than day, how all the cool nights were turned into searing light by the flaming tail of a bad nightmare.

Your tribe. Wasn't it badly damaged in the first attack?

Families and friends and lovers had cried their grief and sorrow, pouring their last dying tears into the earth. The screams had split apart the sky and rang in her ears at night, driving ghosts deep into her head. Her mind had been her last refuge.

But, in the end, that had been taken away from her too.

Preparing for the last battle. Enormous armies gathering for both sides, men and women pledging their insignificant little lives to commanders and leaders who cared only about numbers and How many do the Enemy have?

Your grandmother. How old is she again? I'm sorry. Doesn't seem like she has much time left, does she? Will you be able to see her again before she dies?

Farmers took up scythes, pitchforks, and broken table legs to defend their few possessions againt the Enemy. They would protect their lives, their loved ones, and, on an obscure level, their country.

Honor? Did they kill with primitive weapons to defend their honor?

No.

Honor was for those who could afford it.

She had been fourteen. Two months and three days after she'd met the Avatar, the comet had returned as prophesized. People everywhere, fearful and desperate for a leader to rally around, had flocked to the last Air bender, a 12-year-old boy, seeking support and safety in large numbers. An unbelievable amount of human beings to form together as a force to oppose the Enemy.

He'd placed half under her, and the other half under her brother to command. I need to focus on my bending, he'd said. I trust you guys to do this.

Her brother had jumped into it with a sort of feverish enthusiasm, organizing troops and listening to advice from old men who'd fought in older days. He'd reveled and lived in his position as a true, full-grown man who was trusted to lead an army. During the day, he thought out battle plans and strategies and placed checkpoints along supply lines and set out sentries to guard the borders of their gigantic camp. During the comet-lit night, he trained until his clothes were soaked through with sweat, until the Kyoshi warrior threw up her hands in the middle of a practice fight and said You better take a break because I sure need one.

All their old friends had come, the Earth bender boy and the freedom fighters lead by another boy. She came to trust them, to lean on them as she would lean on a walking cane with a broken foot. In the middle of a military rush, soft moments and even softer touches with the calm, strong Earth bender seemed to make everything easier to bear.

She had found him one morning, flesh blackened and peeling and bones charred to barely ashes. The Avatar had been kneeling next to the body, crying and saying I tried to save him but the Enemy is still too strong, too strong for me. I'm so sorry.

He had left to devote himself even more to learning his Enemy's element and she was left to stare at loss and pain and death and Power.

Your brother. He's the same age as that Earth bender boy was, isn't he? What a shame. So young. With the way things are going, he doesn't seem to have much time left either, am I right?

She had evaluated her Options. And she had made her Decision.

Katara stares at the small mound of earth. It's still damp, proving how recently the occupant underneath it was buried. There is no tombstone, just a straight wooden staff stuck at the head, a wooden staff that Katara knows could have become so much more, if things hadn't happened and the Enemy hadn't happened.

Weak? You're not weak, Katara. You just know your priorities. You just know what's important to you in life. You know what matters. That's not weakness, love, that's strength.

A small breeze blows across the clearing, whispering through the few leaves that have already fallen on the grave. She could pretend that she saw a boy's bright eyes and even brighter smile. But then she would have been lying to herself, and she was sure she had stopped doing that a long time ago.

She turns and leaves the burial site, and tries to find happiness in the things that are still alive. The people that are still hers.

Your tribe is regaining their footing. Your grandmother is doing well, I heard. I suppose she had a few more years left in her. Your brother too. It's a good thing he didn't die young like so many others did. You should be happy, Katara.

I am, Zuko.

Good. I'm glad.