Dawn of a New Prince (Star Wars/Avatar Crossover)

Katara smiled. "That's wonderful! Do you think, Guru Pathik, that you could teach us to open our chakras?" She gestured at herself and the others.

Sokka sighed, once again feeling the gap separating him from the others widen. It seemed that he'd get special training and he'd be left out. He knew this was for the best, but he felt useless once again. He had been feeling that way a lot lately.

"Opening chakras is no easy task. It requires great sacrifice," Guru Pathik warned, "But, yes, you can open them."

"Maybe we should try," said Katara. She glanced at Aang momentarily, glad the darkening sky hid her blush, and returned her gaze to the guru. "We should all do our part to help Aang."

Toph had heard Sokka's sigh. She frowned, and said, "Opening your chakras can't just help benders. It should help anyone willing to do it, right?"

Aang

"I think it's a great idea. If it can help us all be at our best when we face Zuko and Vader next time, we should try it. Especially if it helps me master the Avatar State." Aang said with a smile. He glanced back at Katara and blushed for a moment.

"Very well. But once you start this training, you cannot stop. Are you two ready for this" Pathik asked Katara and Toph.

"I'm ready whenever, but you didn't answer my question," said Toph. "Sokka should be able to benefit from this training too. Can't he train with us?"

Sokka looked up, surprised but pleased that Toph remembered him. He blushed a bit and said, "I can do anything the others do! It's not like it's bending!"

Pathik sighed and shook his head, "I am sorry, but I cannot train you. Chakras are the individual Force energies within every being and, unfortunately, you are not Force-Sensitive. The Force throws through you, but you cannot touch it."

"But that doesn't make sense! How can it be in me and not under my control?!" Sokka asked, "It's not fair!"

"It is the way the Universe works," Pathik told him, "I'm sorry."

"He can try anyway," said Toph, feeling for Sokka. She knew all too well the feeling of being discounted because you were different. "At the very least, it could help him learn to think more clearly."

She hadn't intended that to sound like an insult, which it kind of did, so she grimaced. "I mean, chi is chi, bender or no bender, and his goes through his head. If he clears it, he'll be practically a genius or something."

Sokka was about to object about the perceived insult, but Pathik spoke up, "You have a point, young lady. The Force can still effect those that cannot actively use it. Forgive me. Those who can command the Force often discount those who cannot. One of the justifications Sith like Vader and his Master make are that those who cannot use the Force are blind and must be ruled strictly."

He closed his eyes and sighed. He had always been prone to visions, but since taking up the Force Tradition of being a Guru on this planet, he had experienced even more, especially ones of the rise of the Empire and the fall of the Jedi and the Sith. It saddened him that such men gained control of the Galaxy.

"Underestimating people will turn out to be their downfall," said Katara.

Toph offered Sokka a smile. "Guess you get to train with us after all, meathead," she said fondly.

"It was the Jedi's," Pathik told Katara, remembering his visions of Order 66. He looked over at Aang, "Are you ready?"

Sokka smiled back at Toph, not noticing how close his face was to hers, "What can I say? You'd miss me too much."

Toph jolted a little, surprised by how close he was to her. She felt her cheeks color. "I don't know what that says about me," she said. It might have been a sarcastic remark, if it hadn't been tinged with some shyness.

Sokka felt himself blush when he saw the girl's reddened cheeks and realized that his face was close to hers. Memories of his dream rushed through his head. He smiled nervously, "Yeah, well, I guess it means you like meat and sarcasm."

Toph lifted her brows. Then she chuckled, smirking. "Maybe I do. Don't let it make your head swell, Sokka."

"Hey, I'm nothing if not humble," Sokka told the blind girl with a laugh, "Unlike a certain earthbender I know."

Toph scowled. "Gee thanks," she grumbled, flushing. "You're a real prince, Sokka."

"Well, I aim to please," Sokka told her with a grin, "Besides, I like you're boasting. It's kind of..."

Pathik coughed and Sokka blushed. He had almost forgotten about the others. That was strange. The Guru spoke, "A little joking around helps immensely, but I think it's time we began our training."

"We're ready," said Katara, glaring at her brother and Toph. She was caught between being glad they were back to themselves. But on the other hand, couldn't they take this seriously? "Just tell us what to do, Guru Pathik."

"Very well then," Pathik told her before addressing the entire group, reaching out with the Force to increase their own connection to it, "There are seven chakras that go up the body. Each pool of energy has a purpose, and can be blocked by a specific kind of emotional muck. Be warned...opening the chakras is an intense experience, and once you begin the process, you cannot stop until all seven are open.

"First we will open the Earth chakra, located at the base of the spine. It deals with survival and is blocked by fear. What are you most afraid of? Let your fears become clear to you."

The group settled themselves into the lotus position. Meditation would help them think and feel more clearly.

~~~

One moment, Toph sensed the earth beneath her, all around her, in all its comforting, mightly glory. And then she was somewhere else, somewhere unfamiliar. It was hot, like the Si Wong Desert she had nearly died in. Everything was muddled and fuzzy too, just like then.

She did not know where she was.

And she was alone.

It terrified her more than it might have before. This loneliness was tinged with the bitter tasted of abandonment. She had been left here...

No, no, her parents, her friends... They wouldn't just get rid of her, would they?

She heard something approaching her. She heard the tell-tale heavy breathing, the hiss of a strange blade that cut through flesh and bone as easily as paper.

Vader!

~~~

Katara was back home, in the world of ice and snow. She was confused, at first, and before she even had a chance to be glad to see her home again, she saw the ash hovering in the air.

But that could not be right. The Southern Water Tribe had not been attacked in years.

In the distance, standing at the edge of the village, she saw him. A lump rose up in her throat. She couldn't breathe...

It was the monster again. He had come back, to kill the rest of her family...

Aang

As Aang went into a deep meditative state, the world around him vanished. Several different visions played through his mind. Katara, being pulled into the earth by the General who had wanted to bring out the Avatar State. Him and the Ocean Spirit fused together as one, wiping out the Fire Nation fleet. Losing control in the Si Wong Desert, brimming with anger, and going into the Avatar State, wanting to unleash his fury. Sozin's Comet and the Fire Nation armies, using its mighty power to take the Earth Kingdom and the rest of the world. Ozai, empowered by the Comet, standing before him, ready to deliver the killing blow.

But the most frightening image that came to his mind was, surprisingly, not Vader, but Zuko. Or rather, the new and 'improved' Zuko. Seeing the new look in his eyes. Seeing Zuko surrounded by the bodies of men, women, and even children, at that village so long ago. Zuko's fierce assault on them all the day before, the unearthly power he wielded. How Vader could have twisted Zuko (who Aang had once considered to be redeemable) into that...monster, it was....frightening.

Sokka grimaced as he closed his eyes, feeling a coldness shoot up his spine. He wasn't having visions like the others, but he felt like Vader was choking him again. He grabbed at his neck, but it was not use. Nothing was there!

"Your vision is not real. You are concerned for your survival, but you must surrender those fears," Pathik told them calmly, augmenting his words with the Force to soothe the young ones, "Let your fears flow down the creek."

Sokka grimaced and nodded, reminding himself to think logically. What he was feeling wasn't real and they would find a way to fight Vader. That was what the training was for, right? He closed his eyes and tried to take a deep breath, succeeding somehow and breathing out, feeling as though he ran a marathon as he tried to catch his breath afterwards.

She remembered that this was but a vision. A frightening vision, one that revealed a part of her she did not dare reveal to anyone else, but a vision all the same. It could not hurt her.

Neither could the real thing, either. Not if she let it. She would become stronger. She would face this menace and protect her friends. Nothing and no one would take them, or her pride, away from her ever again.

Toph drew in a deep breath. Easy... Calm... Let it flow away...

Be the rock. Steady and sure...

A sense of calm came over her, and the vision was gone.

~~~

Katara, too, listened. This was the past, not her present. It could not harm her, not if she did not let it. And if that monster ever did return, she would be ready. She would not let him touch her family.

Aang

Aang listened to what the Guru said, and slowly let himself calm down. The visions he was experiencing, the fears he felt--the fear of losing control in the Avatar State, Katara getting hurt, the fear of what Zuko was becoming--all started to flow through him. Aang soon gave a sigh or relief once that was over.

(Wonder what Mara and Zarael are doing while the Gaang does this.)

"Well... That was intense," Sokka commented dryly, rubbing his neck as he did so, looking at the others.

"Be grateful you felt something. That means it worked," Pathik told the Water Tribe boy before standing up and gripping his walking stick and gesturing the others to follow him. After a few minutes of leading them down an old corridor, they found themselves in front of a waterfall. The Guru gestured them to sit as he did the same.

"Next is the..." Pathik began.

"The Water Chakra?" Sokka asked dryly before Pathik nodded happily.

"Brilliant. You're not as dumb as you look," the Guru told him with a grin, "Maybe one day, you will be a Guru too. This chakra deals with pleasure, and is blocked by guilt. Now, look within at all the guilt which burdens you so. What do you blame yourself for?"

Sokka frowned, grimacing at his memories of Yue dying and all the other times he failed to help the others, especially Toph when they were imprisoned. He clenched his fists, not enjoying remembering his failures.