When Universes Collide

[femaleairbender]

Title: When Universes Collide
Summary: Aang and Katara are whisked away to the feudal era as a result of a wish. What will happen, and will Aang and Katara get back to their own universe? Avatar/Inuyasha crossover.
Author's Note: The first chapter takes place during "Nightmares and Daydreams."

Chapter One: Out of One Place and Into Another

The island was beautiful. Green grass was everywhere. The sun was shining, and the blue sky was decorated with white, fluffy clouds. There was even a cliff overlooking the wide, peaceful blue ocean.

But a young boy did not notice any of this. He hadn’t slept since last night, and did not intend to go to sleep anytime soon. This boy was Aang, and he had a lot of stress piled on his shoulders. Not only did he have his usual issues of mastering the four elements and defeating Fire Lord Ozai by the end of the summer, but tomorrow was the day of the solar eclipse, the day Aang and his friends planned to invade the Fire Nation while the firebenders were without their bending powers.

As soon as Aang had heard that the invasion was very soon (that had been about three days ago), he had suddenly felt completely unprepared and had been neglecting his need for sleep in favor of training. Katara, Sokka, and even Toph had all tried their best to help Aang relieve his stress, but none of their efforts had worked.

On top of that, Aang had been plagued with nightmares each time he went to sleep for the past few days. No matter what he did, the nightmares still kept on coming, each one being worse than the one before it. Aang felt that his only choice was to stay awake straight through the invasion.

“Invasion. All aboard for the invasion.” Aang looked as though he was in a zombie-like trance and nearly stumbled over his own feet. He had dark circles under his gray eyes and his dark hair was messy.

“You don’t look so good,” Katara, who was standing nearby, remarked. “You sure you can’t just lie down for a little nap?”

Aang turned toward Katara. “I told you, I can’t go back to sleep.”

“Aang, I know you don’t want to have any more nightmares, but not sleeping isn’t good for you,” Katara protested.

“I don’t have a choice,” Aang replied edgily.

“You need sleep,” Katara repeated.

“What I need,” Aang said, his voice rising slightly, “is for everything to turn out right tomorrow. You heard what Sokka said, I have to fight the baddest man on the planet! And if I don’t win, we’re all done for!”

As Aang was saying this, he was waving his arms wildly, and his tone of voice was becoming more frustrated, impatient, and stressed out.

“Aang, you’ve got to calm down--” Katara began worriedly, but Aang cut her off.

“Katara, you don’t understand! You can’t understand! I’m on a serious deadline to master the elements, defeat the Fire Lord, and finally end this war--by the end of the summer! And as if that’s not enough, we have to win the invasion, otherwise the Fire Nation will might as well win!”

Katara remained silent for a moment after Aang’s rant. She knew he was absolutely right, about everything he had said, but still...

“Aang...” Katara began again, uncertain of what she wanted to say. She needn’t have tried to say anything, however, because Aang spoke again.

“Augh! I wish I could just get away from it all!”

Suddenly, Aang felt raw waves of...something (was it energy?) swirling madly around him and Katara. Whatever it was, Aang guessed it was creating some kind of vortex.

Aang and Katara both felt their bodies spinning, first slowly, then they started spinning faster and faster as the seconds went by. All the bright colors of their surroundings disappeared and everything became gray.

Still wondering what in the world was happening to them, Aang felt his body being pushed into a hole of some kind. He heard Katara scream, then he noticed that he was screaming too. It wasn’t the most pleasant thing he ever experienced (Aang could think of a lot of better ones), his body being pulled and stretched more than he ever knew it could.

Katara’s piercing screams were still resonating in Aang’s ears. He wondered if he was about to die, then a worse thought came to him. Would Katara die?

[Purplejay]

Everyone seems to be in-character, and it's a neat spin on the invasion episodes. I don't know much about Inuyasha, but I can tell that it'll be an interesting twist. Can't wait to read the next chapter!

[femaleairbender]

Chapter Two: Two Newcomers

Aang landed in a crumpled heap on what appeared to be grass. A moment later, Katara arrived with a soft thud and a loud groan. Aang stood onto his feet and helped Katara up. They were standing in a clearing of what they figured was a forest.

“Where are we?” Katara asked. “I remember spinning, then stretching, then everything went black and now we’re...somewhere.”

Aang shrugged, having no idea how to answer Katara’s question. Katara looked around their new surroundings, and saw something that one normally wouldn’t find in a forest.

“A well!” Katara exclaimed.

“What’s a well doing in a forest?” Aang wondered out loud. They didn’t have time to do or say anything else, however, for suddenly, they heard a noise behind them.

They turned around to see what looked like a bear (but yet, in some way, it was unlike any bear Aang and Katara had ever seen). The bear’s teeth were bared and it looked ready to attack.

“Well, well, well...what have we here? Two humans willing to die by my paw?” the bear creature sneered. Aang and Katara were struck with the same thought, That thing can talk?!

Without thinking very clearly, Aang summoned a gust of air at the creature. He expected that his attack would send the bear flying across the forest clearing. Nothing of the sort happened.

“It didn’t even faze it!” Katara exclaimed, voicing Aang’s thoughts.

The bear itself seemed momentarily surprised by Aang’s attack, but nevertheless soon regained its composure.

“You’re full of surprises, human boy,” the bear growled, “but you’re no match for the power of a jewel shard!”

Huh? Jewel shard? What’s it talking about? Aang thought.

But Aang didn’t have time to do anything else. The bear suddenly charged at Katara. The next thing Aang heard was Katara crying out in pain. Aang’s eyes widened. The bear had sunk its claws into her arm. Katara was presently on her knees and staring at the ground. She was clutching her wounded arm, gritting her teeth.

Next moment, or so it seemed to Aang, the bear roared as though it was now its turn to feel pain. Aang then saw an arrow stuck in the bear’s back. The bear whirled around to see who had shot the arrow. Aang, in the meantime, had rushed over to Katara and knelt beside her. Katara was now trying to use part of her long skirt to stop the bleeding from her wound.

Who fired that arrow? Aang wondered, following the direction where the bear was looking.

He saw a boy and a girl, both looking to be about fifteen, and both wearing very odd clothes as far as Aang was concerned. The girl, who was the one who had fired the arrow and was preparing to shoot again, was clad in white and green, had black hair that fell to her shoulder blades, and brown eyes.

Aang’s gaze then fell to the boy, and he thought that he looked even stranger than the girl. He had waist-length hair that was the color of white, bright gold eyes, and was dressed all in red. On top of that, the boy had white dog ears perched on top of his head.

“That was just to get your attention, demon,” the girl stated, still having a second arrow notched into her bow. “Now, where’s that jewel shard?”

--

What? A demon? Is that what that bear is? Katara thought vaguely as she now tried to ignore the pain her wound was causing (she had been unsuccessful in stopping the bleeding with her skirt) and looked toward the two newcomers. The black-haired girl let loose her arrow, and some kind of a pink light was surrounding the arrow as it flew through the air. It shot the bear in the forehead, and a shining, pink piece of something flew out and landed on the ground. Was that the jewel shard that had been mentioned a couple of times earlier?

Katara looked at the white-haired boy, and saw that he had a hand on the hilt of a sword that was at his hip.

“Inuyasha, now!” said the girl as she lowered her bow.

“Don’t need to tell me twice,” the boy responded as he drew out the sword, smirking. To Katara’s amazement, the sword instantly changed to a large and powerful-looking blade. The boy raised it over his head with both hands.

“WIND SCAR!” Yellow light shot out of the sword, made its way to the bear, and engulfed it. Katara heard the roars of pain coming from the bear, and when the light faded, she saw that the bear had been reduced to a pile of dust.

Katara stared at the dust that had once been the bear that had attacked her. Suddenly, she remember her wound and closed her eyes, groaning in pain. She heard Aang say her name and put a hand on her shoulder in concern.

“Are you okay?” The girl with the bow had now come over to Aang and Katara and was looking worriedly at Katara.

“It’s just a scratch,” Katara mumbled. How embarrassing; Katara had been in many dangerous situations before, and how many times did she get injured? Very few times, if any at all.

“Just a scratch?” Katara heard the boy (who had picked up that shining, tiny pink object from the grass) say, his voice sounding a bit amused. “I can smell your blood from here!”

“Oh, ha-ha,” Katara retorted, but she couldn’t help but wonder how exactly he could smell her blood. For that matter, how could he have heard her? She hadn’t spoken that loud.

The girl looked at the boy reproachfully, then turned back to Aang and Katara. “We’ll take you to the village,” she told them, then added to Katara, “Kaede will help you with that wound.”

“We’re taking them to the village?” the boy repeated, now coming over to them and staring at the girl.

She gave him a “what-do-you-think?” look. The boy rolled his eyes and then asked Katara, “Can you walk?”

“I think so,” Katara replied, slowly getting to her feet. She let out an, “Ow!” as she felt a surge of pain in her arm.

“You better not move that arm,” the girl warned. She and Aang stood on either side of Katara and helped her make walking a little easier to bear. The boy was to walk in front of them.

The four were now on their way to the village, and after a few minutes of silence, the girl spoke up. “Sorry for our impoliteness--we forgot to introduce ourselves to you.”

Aang and Katara stiffened. Katara hadn’t thought about when it would come time for them to have to introduce themselves to any strangers, and apparently, neither had Aang. What are we going to say? Katara thought frantically. Should we tell the truth? But then again, we do have to hide from the Fire Nation, everyone thinks Aang’s dead...Oh, no! Aang doesn’t have his headband! They can see his arrow tattoo! But why haven’t they said anything about it?

The girl seemed perfectly unaware about Katara’s (and, to an extension, Aang’s) change of mood. Instead, she smiled brightly and said, “I’m Kagome, and the guy up front is Inuyasha.”

[Purplejay]

It was very detailed, and I could follow the story despite not having prior knowledge of Inuyasha. I think you did a nice job setting this chapter up and introducing Inuyasha and Kagome. Can't wait to hear more from you!

[femaleairbender]

Author's Note: I apologize for taking a long time to update. I partially blame writer's block, but I also recently went to go see the movie Prince Caspian and have been planning on writing fanfiction in the Narnia fandom. Anyway, I thank Purplejay for reviewing. Now, onto chapter three!

Chapter Three: Back in the Village

Presently, Katara was now sitting in the hut owned by the elderly priestess Kaede. She and Aang had made it to the village and, as Kagome had said, Kaede helped Katara bandage up her wound.

Katara was still wondering what she and Aang were going to say to Inuyasha and Kagome (as well as to the other three people that were apparently in a group with Inuyasha and Kagome--Katara had caught a glimpse of them earlier, but hadn’t gotten the chance to talk to them). Were they going to lie, or were Aang and Katara going to come clean about who they were? Katara knew she would have to talk to Aang about it.

She didn’t have to wait for long, because Aang had just then entered the hut.

“Aang, what are we going to do?” Katara spoke before Aang had the chance to say anything. “I don’t know if we should lie or tell the truth, as crazy as it might sound to them.”

Aang paused. “I think we ought to tell them the truth, Katara. They helped us back there with that bear thing; we owe them that much.”

“They could be Fire Nation, and we need to keep a low profile until the invasion,” Katara pointed out, then realized the last thing she just said.

Aang chuckled. “You sound like Sokka. I don’t think Inuyasha, Kagome, and the others are Fire Nation. They certainly are different, though; I wonder if we seem different to them? And...as for the invasion,” Aang sighed at this point, “I get the feeling that we’re going to be here for a while. We might as well make the best of it.”

Meanwhile, Inuyasha had left the village to go back to the forest. He was now sitting on the first branch of the Sacred Tree, thinking. He never excepted to find two humans in the forest when he and Kagome went out to destroy the bear demon who had been terrorizing the village using the power of a Sacred Jewel shard. He wondered where the two humans were from, and he couldn’t help thinking how odd their clothing was.

“Inuyasha! Would you mind coming down from the tree and back to the village?” Inuyasha looked down to see Kagome standing by the base of the tree, trying to get his attention. “It’s time for a little group meeting.”

Inuyasha shrugged and jumped down from his branch. Normally, he would try to get her to argue with him, but Inuyasha decided that picking a minor argument with Kagome was pointless at this time. The group--consisting of himself, Kagome, a monk named Miroku, a demon slayer named Sango, and a fox demon named Shippo--were probably going to talk about their two unexpected guests anyway.

As they started to walk back to the village, Inuyasha felt Kagome take his hand. A slight blush crept onto his face, but Kagome didn’t seem to notice.

“So, what do we do with them?” Miroku was saying later on. He, Inuyasha, Kagome, Sango, and Shippo were presently a little distance away from Kaede’s hut in the village and discussing about Aang and Katara.

“They don’t seem to be from around here,” Kagome stated. “We don’t even know their names yet. I say we try to get as much info from them as we can.”

“They could be two of Naraku’s minions,” Inuyasha speculated, referring to their archenemy.

“Oh, please!” Shippo scoffed. “That has to be the stupidest theory I’ve ever heard.” Shippo probably would have said more if Inuyasha didn’t choose that moment to hit him in the head.

“You mind repeating that, ya little runt?” Inuyasha snapped.

Kagome rolled her eyes. “Inuyasha, sit.”

And with that three-letter word, Inuyasha fell flat onto his face with a thud. He remained motionless for a few seconds, and when the spell of the rosary he was wearing around his neck wore off, he sat up and stared at Kagome.

“Why did you do that?” Inuyasha demanded.

“For hitting Shippo,” Kagome replied a bit testily. “And anyway, what makes you think those two are working for Naraku? I’m sure we would know by now if that were the case.”

“Hey, it was just a suggestion!”

Miroku shook his head as Inuyasha and Kagome continued their argument. Really, for a match made in heaven, they sure did argue a lot (even if it was obvious most of the time that Inuyasha and Kagome simply argued for the sake of arguing and not because they were genuinely angry with each other). Well, actually, Inuyasha and Kagome were not officially a couple, but just about everyone and their grandmother could tell that it would happen sooner or later.

“It looks like this meeting is officially over,” Sango remarked as she walked over to stand next to Miroku.

“It would seem so, Sango,” the monk replied, reaching out to touch Sango from behind.

Suddenly realizing that Miroku was going to grope her--for the umpteenth time!--Sango slapped him hard in the face before he could touch her backside.

“You pervert!” the now annoyed demon slayer cried.

“I didn’t even touch you,” Miroku protested, nursing the red hand-shaped mark on his face. Sango snorted.

“Is this a bad time?” Aang asked. He had heard the ruckus from the hut and wanted to check it out.

The chaos that had been going on for the last few minutes stopped as the five looked at Aang, who was looking at them strangely.

“We were just talking about you,” Inuyasha explained as he got up from the ground.

“Oh.” That was the only thing Aang could think of to say. “Uh...I don’t think I got your names,” he added, looking at Miroku, Sango, and Shippo.

Sango smiled. “My name is Sango, this is Shippo,” here she pointed at the young fox demon, “and the pervert here is Miroku,” she finished as she glared accusingly at the not-so-holy monk, who still had the evidence on his face of her slapping him earlier. Said monk rolled his eyes and muttered something under his breath. Aang stared at Miroku with a disturbed look on his face.