Chapter 10: The Departure Decision
POV: Sam Alen
The village gathered for an impromptu council as Aang explained his need to reach the Northern Water Tribe to master waterbending, and everyone understood this meant Katara must go, meant their last waterbender would leave them defenseless, meant trusting a twelve-year-old airbender with children who'd just lost their fathers to war.
Sam stood at the edge of the assembly, his enhanced thermal perception mapping the emotional landscape around him—fear radiating from the adults, excitement and terror warring in Katara and Sokka, and from Aang himself, the vast spiritual energy that made Sam's new abilities resonate like tuning forks struck in harmony.
"This is it. Canon timeline begins now. Everything I've done up to this point was preparation for this moment."
Hakoda raised his hand for silence, his weathered face carrying the weight of a decision that would affect every person in the village.
"We understand the necessity," he said, addressing Aang directly. "But you're asking us to trust our children's lives to a journey we can't protect them during."
"And to trust a kid who's been in the ice for a hundred years with survival knowledge he doesn't possess yet."
"I'll keep them safe," Aang promised with the earnest sincerity of someone who hadn't yet learned how many promises the world would force him to break. "I swear it."
"You'll try. But you're twelve, Aang. You're going to make mistakes, face impossible choices, carry guilt that isn't yours to carry. Just like everyone else."
"Swearing is easy," Bato observed with the pragmatic caution of someone who'd seen too many young warriors die despite good intentions. "Keeping promises is harder when the Fire Nation starts shooting at you."
The conversation continued around the central question nobody wanted to voice directly: whether this strange boy with impossible powers could actually protect anyone, or whether sending their children with him was elaborate suicide disguised as hope.
Sam watched the debate with growing unease, knowing exactly how crucial this decision was to everything that followed. Aang needed Katara and Sokka—not just for their abilities, but for their grounding influence. Without them, the Avatar's journey would become something darker, more isolated, less human.
But from the village's perspective, this was insanity.
"I could tip the scales. My recommendation carries weight now. If I support the journey, they'll probably allow it. If I advise against it, they might refuse."
"What do you think, Sam?" Hakoda asked, recognizing the same dynamic. "You've shown good judgment about protective measures. How do you assess this risk?"
"The most important question I've been asked since arriving in this world. Answer wrong and the timeline collapses. Answer right and I send children into mortal danger."
Every eye in the assembly turned toward him, waiting for wisdom he didn't feel qualified to provide. Sam's thermal perception showed him the emotional stakes—hope and terror in equal measure from people who'd learned to trust his warnings about danger.
"Think carefully. What can I say that supports the canonical journey without revealing foreknowledge?"
"Sometimes the greatest risk is staying safe," Sam said finally. "Sometimes the world changes around you whether you participate in that change or not."
"Safe but incomplete. I need to be more specific without triggering the curse."
"You believe the children should go?" Gran Gran asked, her ancient eyes studying his face for signs of the deeper knowledge she suspected he carried.
"I believe they're safer learning to navigate danger than waiting for danger to find them here."
"True. The village will be attacked again. Multiple times. But I can't say that directly."
"And you believe this boy can protect them?"
Sam studied Aang's earnest face, reading power and innocence in equal measure. The Avatar was untrained, untested, carrying responsibilities that would break most adults. But he was also the key to ending a war that would otherwise consume everything.
"Can he protect them? Not always. Not perfectly. People will die on this journey. But the alternative is everyone dies when the Fire Nation comes back in force."
"I believe they'll protect each other. And I believe the alternative—staying here and hoping the war passes us by—isn't actually safer."
"Please let that be enough to convince them without revealing why I know the war won't pass us by."
The debate continued for another hour, but Sam could see the decision crystallizing around his assessment. The adults trusted his judgment about danger, and if he thought the journey was safer than staying, that carried significant weight.
"I just voted to send children into a war zone. I just used my influence to put Katara and Sokka directly in harm's way."
But the alternative was worse. In the original timeline, they'd left anyway. At least now they left with better preparation and a village that supported their decision rather than making them choose between duty and family.
"Small improvements. Incremental changes that might matter when things get desperate."
"There's one more consideration," Aang said, his young voice carrying surprising authority. "I'd like Sam to come with us."
"What."
The request hit Sam like a physical blow. He'd been planning to stay behind, to continue preparing the village for future attacks, to maintain the fiction that he was just a helpful outsider rather than someone with cosmic knowledge.
"I can't leave. I'm not part of Team Avatar. I'm the support character who stays home and provides backup."
"That's not..." Sam began, then stopped as every eye in the assembly focused on him again. "I'm needed here. The village still needs defenses, preparations..."
"The village needs you to help keep our children alive more than it needs defensive preparations," Hakoda interrupted with the blunt pragmatism of a leader making impossible calculations.
"He's right. But he doesn't understand what he's asking. He's asking me to step into the narrative, to become part of the story instead of just influencing it from the edges."
"You feel like someone who's supposed to be part of this," Aang continued, his spiritual awareness picking up on something Sam couldn't identify. "Like you're connected to what's coming."
"Connected. He can sense the system somehow, or the way my transmigrator status interacts with his Avatar abilities."
"I don't know anything about Avatar duties or spiritual journeys," Sam protested, grasping for reasonable objections.
"All true. I know about Avatar duties from watching television, which is not the same thing as actual understanding."
"You know about protection," Katara said firmly. "You know about preparation and tactical thinking and keeping people alive when everything goes wrong. That's what we need."
"She's not going to let me say no. None of them are. They've decided I'm essential to this mission."
"The children trust you," Gran Gran added with the gentle implacability of someone who'd spent decades maneuvering stubborn people into necessary decisions. "That trust might be more valuable than any defensive preparation you could leave behind."
"Trust. They trust me to keep their children alive during a journey I know will include multiple near-death experiences, actual death experiences, and encounters with some of the most dangerous people in the world."
Sam looked around the assembly, reading determination in every face. They'd made their decision—not just to allow the journey, but to send him as their representative, their insurance policy against the unknown dangers ahead.
"I can't refuse. If I refuse, they might change their minds about letting Katara and Sokka go. And without Katara and Sokka, Aang becomes someone darker, angrier, less balanced."
"If that's what you need from me," Sam said finally, "then I'll go."
"God help me. I just agreed to join Team Avatar. I just stepped into the story as a main character instead of a background influence."
The decision felt like crossing a threshold he couldn't return from, accepting a role he'd never intended to claim.
[MAJOR QUEST COMPLETE: DESTINY'S CROSSROADS]
[REWARD: +100 MP, +3 ALL STATS, TITLE: "AVATAR'S GUARDIAN"]
[NEW QUEST CHAIN: JOURNEY TO THE NORTH 0/100]
[FATE DEVIATION: 15.89% - MAJOR TIMELINE ALTERATION CONFIRMED]
[WARNING: PROTAGONIST STATUS ASSUMED - NARRATIVE RESPONSIBILITY ACTIVATED]
The system's notifications felt like a sentencing rather than a reward. Protagonist status. Narrative responsibility. He was no longer just influencing events from the side—he was now accountable for their outcome.
"Fifteen percent deviation. I've changed the fundamental structure of the story. There's no going back to subtle background influence."
That evening, as the village prepared for their departure, Sam found himself packing gear he'd never expected to need. Travel supplies, defensive weapons, the tools of someone preparing for an indefinite journey into unknown dangers.
"Tomorrow I get on a flying bison with the Avatar and two children, and we head into a war zone. This is insane."
"Nervous?" Sokka asked, appearing in the doorway of Sam's igloo with his own travel pack slung across his shoulders.
"Terrified. Excited. Overwhelmed. All of the above."
"Should be. This is going to be dangerous."
"Understatement of the century."
"But also incredible, right? I mean, we're going to see the world. Learn about other places, other people. Maybe help end the war."
"Optimism. Sokka's greatest strength and most dangerous weakness."
"Maybe. Or maybe we're walking into something we're not prepared for."
"Definitely walking into something we're not prepared for. Multiple somethings."
"Then we'll learn to be prepared. Together."
Sokka's confidence was infectious, reminding Sam why this kid would eventually become one of the most effective strategic minds in the world. Not because he was fearless, but because he faced fear with intelligence and determination.
"Together. That's the key word. I'm not doing this alone anymore."
"Together," Sam agreed, and realized he meant it.
Whatever came next—Air Temples and Kyoshi Island and Omashu, earthbending tournaments and swamp spirits and the siege of the North—he would face it as part of a team rather than as an outside observer.
The responsibility was terrifying.
The possibility was intoxicating.
[PARTY SYSTEM ACTIVATED]
[CURRENT PARTY: AANG (AVATAR), KATARA (WATERBENDER), SOKKA (TACTICIAN), SAM (GUARDIAN)]
[SYNERGY BONUSES UNLOCKED]
[DESTINY: CONVERGENCE CONFIRMED]
As aurora borealis painted the sky in shades of green and gold, Sam stood at the edge of the village that had become his home and made his peace with the impossible.
Tomorrow, he would stop being the mysterious outsider who helped from the shadows.
Tomorrow, he would become whatever the world needed him to be.
Even if he had no idea what that was.
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