He heard airship engines, and then footsteps, but his mind barely registered them through all the pain.

"You did it!", someone, possibly Sokka, yelled at him. "You should've seen yourself, it was amazing! You were all- ... Aang?"

"Aang! He's hurt!"

"Aang, talk to me! Aang!"

"We gotta get him to Katara, quickly!" He felt hands, quickly picking him up from the stone ground he lay, carrying him somewhere. He didn't care where: It hurt too much to care about anything at all.

At first Katara was relieved to see Appa in the horizon, but her happiness was turned into terror and confusion when she saw her brother and Suki, carrying Aang's body. She screamed his name as she ran to him, healing water ready at her hand. Kneeling over at him, she noticed several minor burns and cuts, but they were not the main priority: Instead, she pulled down his pants - she was too worried, and he too much in pain, for either of them to be any bit embarrased - and brought her water to the point between his legs. Aang winced and shruddered on the contact.

"Well?", Aang asked weakly, after some minutes had passed. "Am I gonna make it?"

Katara smiled weakly at him. "It's pretty bad, but you should make a full recovery. You won't be able to walk for a few days, though. So, what happened?"

He told her. It had been a sneak attack: After taking away the ex-Firelord's bending, he had turned and bended the sea to put out all the forest fires the airship fleet of destruction had caused. It was at that moment Ozai had found strength enough to stand, and had brought a devastating kick of rage and frustration to Aang's groin. Katara knew the man was evil, but she didn't think he'd be that bad. She was wrong, apparently.

"When I was a kid," Aang continued, after some more minutes, "Gyatso once brought me to see this play. And during the play, a villain got hurt to the same place I did. I remember how he screamed like a girl, holding his crotch and making funny faces, and everyone in the theater laughed. Even me."

"How can anyone think that's funny? How could I have thought it'd be?" He was crying, mostly from the pain, but a little bit of it came from anger and frustration. "What does it make of us humans, if every single one of us laughed every time one of our own gets hurt that badly? Do we get some sick satisfaction when someone's hurt, thinking that if it's not me, it's okay to laugh at it? I'm the Avatar, I'm supposed to help these people, to save them. But is it really worth it, if they can also be so evil?"

Katara couldn't answer that.