A/N: So, this idea has been in my head before I even began AWOW. It's strange because now that I look back on it, this was the original idea for The Oracle. I am so glad I did what I did instead of this, though. I just could not bring it to my heart to write an entire, full-blown story this depressing. Just couldn't do it.

Welp, since this story has been agitating me for months, I had to let it free. It was really getting on my nerves. I was telling my dad about this story incase he had a better way to display it—I dunno, a happier one? But, just to get under my skin, he said, 'What's this for? Avatar? That show is so last year. Don't you know that's over?' And so, because the child in me became angry, I stalked him for fifteen minutes reciting the entire Cave of Two Lovers episode until he gave in and took it back.

I am one happy waterbender.

Disclaimer: I do NOT own Avatar: The Last Airbender or any of the characters within it.

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The Cycle

The Child

It was the worst night of my life. My mind reeled backwards, and in a split second, I could almost feel again. If I succumbed to my emotions and fed up with trying to feel nothing, I would surely break.

There doesn't seem to be another way to put it other than stating I am completely and permanently broken. I've been emptied out like a shell the snail doesn't need anymore, washed up onto shore and stepped on by some angry, destructive adolescent.

Nothing is worth living for anymore. My childhood was filled with happy memories and snow, but my mother was taken away from me and all that was left behind was a frazzled girl with flakes of white abyss that fell down upon her wherever she went.

But that was then.

This is now.

As much as I hated to admit it—as much as I disliked knowing I was dependant on the being of another person—he became my lifeline. It seemed everything I did, or said, or even thought, was all on a basis of what would benefit him; support him; supply him.

So why did it take me so damn long to realize I loved him more than anything or anyone in this unfair world?

Why was it only when he was taken away from me I knew I was madly in love with the one person who's adoration I constantly pushed aside?

That's right. I love him. But I was too stupid to admit it to myself, and most importantly—to him.

I felt a wave of hatred for that firebending prodigy. While he sits safely in a jail cell with only the loss of his firebending, the Avatar is gone from this world and will never feel the wind on his face or the earth beneath his feet ever again.

He'll never hear my voice repeat over and over again just how much I love him.

It's a funny thing, really. How the inner apocalypse can begin in several torn people due to a sole being. This world is experiencing love and peace, and all the happiness between the nations is shared equally—like those little post cards with people surrounding a heart-shaped world while they hold hands and smile harmoniously, like they all share a secret the viewer will never know. But, if I was that viewer, I would know this secret. The world may be in better hands than it was only months prior, but for me, the greatest sacrifice of history was not worth all the prosperity of mankind.

The thing is—he knew the risks, he just refused to abide by them.

And so, here I walk—alone, broken and more lonely than I have ever been in my life—on the road leading straight to Ba Sing Se. My journey has been long without Appa, and although I'm the only thing he has left, I was afraid if I spent too much time with him, it would lead to a breakdown as quickly as anything else.

I finished climbing the hill I climbed a time before, and once at the top, I could see the great earth kingdom city in the distance. I paused before looking around, taking a long glance at my surroundings when my eyes fell upon a large tent conjured from earth.

Hope was born here.

That seems significant, though, and I ponder the thought that not only did a child's life began in this very place, but also the essense of hope itself. It was concocted as soon as that little child was born and he regained his sense of love and life and happiness. The aura that defines—defined—him as a person.

I love him.

My body quivered under the next reverie I whipped up. The last time I spoke to him, I was yelling at him! Treating him like a crazy animal who didn't know right from wrong. And in the Fire Lord's house, to boot!

I am a terrible, terrible person.

My sorrow was unheard and unknown, though I'd much rather it that way. I stepped forward in front of the earth tent and shifted the pack on my shoulder. It was becoming increasingly uncomfortable as the tears stung my eyes and wavered with confusion about my eyelids.

In a single blink of time, I lost it.

I made the gravest mistake I could've possibly made.

I thought his name.

Salty, disgusting drops of water rolled down my cheeks and as I attempted to keep them away, they slid down faster. I noticed I was on my knees, but I couldn't remember how I got there. My hands, by a will other than my own, pushed firmly on the ground and grabbed the sand at the foot of the tent, feeling it between my toughened fingertips. I could hear my cries, though I tried to stifle them as best I could. There was no use.

My tears didn't give me even the shortest second to breathe, so I choked on my own sorry air and fell completely on my hands and knees. My lungs convulsed, but I still felt no physical pain. I heard myself gag and croak to catch my breath, but still—feeling nothing.

My ears picked up crying once again. It wasn't me though—it couldn't be. I regulated my breathing pattern and breathed in deeply, the soft, muffled crying still radiating in my mind.

Where was it coming from?

I bit my bottom lip and stood, now intrigued by this unknown source that seemed to mock me in my sorrow. It was light and as I listened closer, not only was it strangulated, but high and distressed. It sounded like—like—the cries of a baby.

If on instinct, I whirled around and let my feet lead me to the poor child. I slipped behind the tree Aang and I shared a parting hug quite some time ago, beyond several bushes, and into a small indent in the mountain. Part of the wall jutted out unnaturally, but from a lucky experience with the elements, I knew what it was. An earthbender was here.

I spotted the child instantly, settled upon the platform appearing out of the tall formation of rock. It was in a small, makeshift bed—a bundle of cloth and leaves. A tiny pool of water was settled right below the child's placement and to the left of that was a scorchmark on the ground. How strange.

The baby softened up on it's cries, almost instantly settled as it's bright blue eyes spotted me. A heavy wind picked up and forced my neatly crafted braid to flail timidly. I squinted my eyes in reflex and grabbed the child under it's arms, lifting it gently into my grasp. I held it tight to me, though the calm breathing emitting from it's mouth was unheard in the harsh winds.

I took several steps from the baby's original mount, and in each step, the air mild out bit by bit. Once I approached the earth tent for shelter, there was no point—all was calm.

I pulled the child from my chest and stared deeply into it's cerulean orbs as they sparkled gloriously. It had sporatic, dark chocolate locks as well, the exact same color as mine. In fact, this baby looked so much like my own, it frightened me. And for a single, lost moment, I looked down into the eyes of what could have been.

"Did someone leave you here?" I found myself asking the child. It cocked it's little head to the side. Obviously it couldn't respond to me—it was only a few weeks old, give or take. For some reason though, I felt connected to it, as if I really was it's mother. I knew that was impossible, for I've clearly never had a child, but somehow I felt wholly responsible for what happened to it now that it rested in my hands.

"Hello?" I asked no one in particular, hoping to get a reply from the child's caretaker. "Is anyone here?" my voice questioned, much louder this time. No response.

An odd feeling came over me and I knew there wasn't anyone here for this kid. It was all on it's own.

I cradled the baby compasionately with my right arm and pulled my pack off of me. I hadn't realized how heavy it was until it was off, so it dropped to the ground with a resonant thud. Reaching out with my free hand, I manuvered through the satchel's compartments and found the wrappings usually required for bandaging. I was going to find out this child's gender—that was kind of important.

The rolled up cloth was dropped beside me on the ground, giving me free reign to waterbend the water from the pouch at my hip. I swirled it out and created a small, flat surface of ice below me, knelt down, and placed some of the material on it to set the baby on. It was abnormally calm, but I made no remark, for somehow I could sense it trusted me.

"Okay..." I said under my breath, and began to remove it's diaper, which was made from the same material as it's makeshift bed. What I found was nothing out of the ordinary, so I bent a small sliver of ice back into water and cleaned the child, put on a new wrap, and picked her up to cradle her once more.

I always did want a little baby girl. And as far fetched as it may sound, a baby boy, too—but only if it was Aang's child. Then I could see tiny versions of Aang running around our home with that giant, goofy grin that I love far too much... If only this was a perfect world.

Slowly, since I was in no rush to get to Ba Sing Se, I put the rest of the cloth in my bag, bended the water back into my satchel and slung my pack over my left shoulder. I smiled at the little form of life in my arms, but it was a small, sorrowful smile. Why would someone abandon a poor, innocent child in the middle of no where? Not many people took this way to the earth kingdom capital since it was the trail from the Serpent's Pass and the back way to the great city. Were they expecting this newborn to fend for herself? She couldn't even crawl yet.

As I ran through possible senarios, I turned and glanced once more at Toph's earth tent. I, with child in my grasp, head at a steady speed to Ba Sing Se.