This is a oneshot. If it becomes popular I will make more out of it. (Review if you want it to be continued.) Of course, I would have to finish my other story first.
Disclaimer: NO! I DO NOT OWN DANNY PHANTOM OR AVATAR THE LAST AIRBENDER! WHY? WHY DO YOU ALWAYS ASK ME THIS!?
There are a few changes to the way things are in the Avatar world. Mainly consisting of Iroh's son.
Back and forth, back and forth. The repetitive rocking of the ship had become such a normal occurrence for Iroh that he barely noticed it anymore. It was, after all, a result of his decision so long ago. He had chosen to accompany his nephew, the banished prince, when he left the fire nation. His nephew had been sentenced to an impossible task—capturing the Avatar.
The Avatar was an all powerful being! How did the fire nation expect a teenager to be capable of capturing a hundred-year-old master of the elements? Of course, they didn't believe he ever would, but still. The least the firelord could have done was send him on an accomplishable task to regain his honor.
His nephews hopes had risen recently when a beam of light had shot into the sky. Zuko had immediately claimed it to have been of the Avatar's creation. Iroh had hoped otherwise, for Zuko's sake. Zuko could easily be injured by the master of the elements, and Iroh treated Zuko as his own son… after… well… Ba Sing Se.
Iroh glanced at an image of his actual son. Tears welled in his eyes as he recalled his son's eagerness to accompany him to Ba Sing Se in Iroh's plan to conquer its great walls. Iroh had allowed it, thinking that he would keep his son out of the line of fire. It would be a great learning experience, not to mention his son would witness a great feat in the history of the world. Keeping his son on the sidelines was his best plan, after all his son had been twelve at the time, hardly the correct age to join in combat.
Iroh had underestimated his son's eagerness to join in the fight for his country. Looking back on it, Iroh knew it was his own fault. He had repeatedly lied throughout his son's childhood, had said that the fire nation was protecting itself from greater evils, making the world a better place— he had reasons, of course, for these lies. He had known that his son had a pure heart, far purer than any normal fire nation citizen had the right to claim to have. If his son had known the fire nations true intentions—taking over the world—his son would likely have attempted to stop the fighting, to preserve the lives of innocents. Iroh had always wondered how he had ended up with such a great person for a son.
His son had ended up sneaking into the lines of soldiers. Iroh knew because the morning of the attack, his suit of armor had disappeared. Iroh had a backup suit but he was stressed about his son's disappearance. Iroh couldn't call off the attack now—it had already begun. His son would be alright, he had told himself repeatedly. His son was at the top of his class, if he had been the right age, he could have easily been in the army. Still, he was inexperienced, and could easily be killed.
On the six-hundredth-day of the fight at Ba Sing Se, Iroh had been out in the battlefield taking down earth kingdom soldiers left and right. They still hadn't broken through the wall. This fight seemed to be heading in the direction of his greatest failure. When Iroh stepped on something hard and tripped, his world had stopped.
There, on the ground, was his helmet. Not the one he was wearing, but the one from his stolen armor.
It was unmistakably his own. His had been expertly crafted to resemble a dragon, with horns and spines and what looked like pearl-white teeth. Not to mention the jade that was embedded in the top of the helmet. It was impossible to confuse it with any other helmet.
In addition, his son's hair band had been attached to the top of one of the horns. Worse, was the giant slash cutting the side of the helmet almost into two pieces. Nearby, his sword, the one with the dragon design and jade embedding, lay untouched since it was dropped.
Iroh had fallen to the ground in misery. He had no idea where the body was, under the ground, perhaps, buried by one of the earth benders.
That night Iroh had called off his troops, and upon his return to the fire nation, claimed that they had been tired and had missed home.
In reality, he was devastated at the loss of his son, Lu Ten. After that day, he had decided to honor his son's pure heart, and began to subtly stop participating in the fire nation's military. When Ozai, his brother, was appointed as firelord, Iroh didn't protest, even though he was the eldest son. He didn't want to lead the country in this war.
Then, when Zuko, who he treated as his own son, was banished, he accompanied him in his search for the Avatar.
Suddenly, Iroh was brought out of his musings when there was a knock on his door.
"General Iroh, wake up!" One of the guards exclaimed. "Your presence is requested on the deck!"
Iroh made sure his eyes no longer held tears as he stood up and opened the door.
"You're awake," the guard commented in surprise. Usually it took some effort to get Iroh to wake up. Of course, he wasn't sleeping in the first place, but no one needed to know that.
When he reached the deck his nephew explained.
"I found the avatar, and his hiding place," Zuko reported. Iroh simply nodded. This would be interesting.
—…Line Break…—
Danny was tired from his travels. He had left the city of Ba Sing Se sometime during the six hundred day long attack. No, he wasn't part of the population inside the walls. He had participated in the attack on the city (secretly, though, for he was underage). He believed he was helping his innocent country. It wasn't possible for him to be more wrong.
Danny had grown up being told that the fire nation was innocent, that it was the hero through all of this. (Of course, Danny had thought that killing was wrong, but no one ever elaborated on those kinds of details). Danny had believed what he was told. However, in the attack against the Earth Kingdom capital of Ba Sing Se, he had injured an earth kingdom soldier. He had been about to finish him off when something inside him told him it was wrong. It didn't tell him why. He just knew it was wrong to kill someone. So he disappeared. Literally. From the fire nation's point of view, he would be seen as just another soldier killed in battle. He doubted that anyone would believe otherwise. No one would find him. He would go far away. The only person who would look for him would be his dad. But he would make sure that he was never found.
As sounds of rocks and flames surrounded him, he reached upwards. He removed his helmet, used his own sword, and slashed a gaping hole into the side of it. He then threw the helmet in one direction, and the sword in the other. After that he ran. Ran away from the fight. He couldn't enter the city now, it was under lockdown and they would immediately recognize his outfit. He had to escape to an Earth Kingdom town, find a change of clothes, and figure out a plan from there.
Danny knew he had to come up with a new name, his current name was too painstakingly obvious that he was from the fire nation. He chose his name from his past life: Danny. It didn't fit in with this world, but it would have to work.
Using his ghost powers from that past world, he became invisible and ran unnoticed past the fighting. He headed in the direction that he hoped was south, knowing that it was less populated in that direction.
Through his travels he had reflected on his past life, his life where his family and friends had lived. Danny remembered when his life was turned upside down. It was soon after he had saved the world from the disasteroid. Everything had been going well, Sam was his girlfriend, Tucker was mayor, Jazz was ever smarter.
However, one day, on a seemingly normal day, ghosts began to emerge from the Fenton Portal. The first that got through destroyed the doors that attempted to shut. The world was being invaded by ghosts. After four years of struggle, Danny was still leading the defenses against the ghosts. Finally, on one fateful day, he, as well as the rest of the defense army, managed to defeat the ghosts. Destroyed buildings had been everywhere. The recovery was long, yet expected. Through all of that, fate decided it truly hated Danny. It was ironic that he lived through the war only to day a few months later. On the day that he got his powers, a little girl was playing with her friends by the street. The ball rolled into the street, and the young girl chased after it. A huge truck came rocketing down the street. All of the bystanders had been frozen.
"Move kid!" Some called, even though they made no move to help. They were frozen with the unexpectedly non ghost related problem.
Danny didn't even hesitate. He ran into the street and shoved the girl out of the way just as the truck hit him. He had been recovering from an attack by Vlad, who had shorted out his powers with the Plasmius Maximus again. Without being able to turn intangible, he was killed.
His friends and family had spent time mourning over his loss. They looked for his ghost half in the Ghost Zone but had no luck.
Danny had, infact become a full ghost, but he needed the world to move on without him. He couldn't live with them as a full ghost, Clockwork had explained it all to them.
Danny was unsure how long it had been when Clockwork told him he could visit his friends and family. The time had been spent focusing on his ghost core. He, with Clockwork's teaching, had figured out that he had a pentaneutral core. This meant that his core was synced with the elements of water, earth, fire, and air. The only one that he had any experience with was the ice portion of his water part of his core.
When Danny appeared at a town meeting, there were cries of shock and joy. Danny stayed only long enough to explain that he couldn't continue as a human in this world. He stayed only long enough to help the world in the direction of peace between them and the ghosts of the Ghost Zone. After the world was well on its way in that direction, and his friends and family were ready to move on (they would miss him, but could live without him), Danny went back to Clockwork.
Clockwork had sent him here, to a world that needed him. The world where bending existed and a single person was expected to keep balance. A person named the Avatar.
Somewhere along his journey south, Danny had picked up some Earth Kindom clothes. He blended in quite well now. He had cut his hair so it fell in a messy way that was impossible to comb. He had left his hairband with his helmet.
Danny also learned that the fire nation, the one he had naively believed to be doing the right thing, was an awful country that wanted to take over the world. He was glad he had left.
Danny had been reborn into a nice family, his mother hadn't always been around, and eventually left, but his dad had been wonderful. Of course, he was always busy in the military and lied to him about the fire nation's motives… but still.
Danny had been born without bending, but, thanks to his unnaturally rare pentaneutral core, he was able to convince everyone that he was a fire bender and could use his powers without secrets (score! Danny had thought at the time). As a quick learner, he had excelled in his classes, and became quite good at his fiery side of his pentaneutral core. He hadn't discovered anything really with his core other than the fact that he had a pentaneutral core. He was happy that he could learn to use it through the techniques of this world. They were more in tune with their respective elements. It had taken Danny quite some time to learn and then understand his core, and soon after he had learned about it, he had come to this world. Therefore, the mentoring had been very useful. He had never had a teacher— or master as they call it in this world— and was thrilled to learn from someone (other than Clockwork) instead of learning from himself.
In addition, he had been given a new name here. He hadn't minded, but still preferred the name 'Danny'. His fire nation name just sounded too formal. Besides, now he felt like that name was cursed, being something of relevance to the fire nation and the lies that he was told.
Anyway, Danny eventually reached a village at the very southernmost tip of the mainland. Danny eventually got a job as a member on a supply ship that traveled to a variety of places. About two years after he ran away, he turned fourteen. He also was a member on the supply ship traveling to the south pole.
When he got there, he found it was so remote that he would love to live there, not to mention they were in tune with the water element. He asked the village elder, and she, as well as the rest of the village (other than one sarcastic paranoid teenager that he later grew to like named Sokka), welcomed him with open arms.
One girl, named Katara, was especially interested in his background.
"So, what's your name?" She had asked the day he arrived. He had just finished talking to Kanna, the elder in the village. She had accepted him into the village and he was now meeting the members.
"Danny," Danny replied.
"That's an odd name. Where are you from?" She continued. Sokka began to give him suspicious looks.
"Uh…" Danny stumbled. Sokka looked like he was going to call him out on his lie any minute now. "I'm from…" He couldn't say the Earth Kingdom, even though he was wearing those clothes. He hadn't picked up enough earth bending. He wanted to be able to practice part of his core around these people without secrets… "the northern water tribe. I was… traveling for a few years when I decided to… visit our… sister tribe."
"Then why is your name 'Danny'? It isn't a water tribe name," Sokka accused.
"Well, my parents… are quite… odd," Danny replied simply.
"Uh, huh," Sokka said sarcastically, "how do we know you're not with the fire nation!"
"Sokka!" Katara exclaimed, while Danny stiffened the slightest bit. "Sorry about him. I'm Katara, by the way, and the paranoid one is my brother, Sokka."
"It's fine, and nice to meet you," Danny replied. "Besides, I can prove it! I'm a water bender! A beginner, at least."
Danny then turned towards the water and froze the surface.
"Wow!" Katara exclaimed. "Will you be my master!?"
Danny looked sheepish as he rubbed the back of his neck. "Well, I'm still a beginner, I only know how to do ice. Besides, isn't there another water bender here in the south pole?"
"No," Katara said sadly, "You're looking at the only water bender in the whole south pole."
"That's not right!" Danny exclaimed.
After that, Sokka didn't doubt Danny. It was impossible for a member of the fire nation to be a water bender, after all. Danny got along quite well in the village. That is, until one day, while fishing, Danny was marveling at Katara as she trapped a fish in a bubble of water. This led to a fight between the siblings and then the canoe was smashed between two pieces of ice.
Danny was launched onto one of them while Katara and Sokka were launched onto the other piece of ice.
"Danny!" Katara yelled in worry.
"Don't worry! I'll catch up with you later!" Danny called back.
There was nothing Katara or Sokka could do otherwise, so they simply watched as he drifted further and further away.
"Why don't you use your magical water abilities to bring him back over here," Sokka asked.
Katara began to get mad, "Because then I might accidentally tip the iceberg, then he would drown, not to mention get hypothermia. And it's water bending."
The fight escalated, until eventually it led to a giant iceberg being broken, and the two discovered a boy in an iceberg.
They discovered he was named Aang, was an airbender, and had a 'flying' bison named Appa.
Meanwhile Danny had waited until he was out of sight, went ghost, and flew to find Katara and Sokka. He found them eventually. But, oddly enough, he found them talking to a bald kid with some arrows… and a big fur ball?
Danny landed and, while they weren't looking, became a human again. When he had moved to the southern water tribe, he had switched his Earth Kingdom clothes for water tribe ones that were very much like Sokka's. He had explained his Earth Kingdom clothes by saying he had worn them during his travels. When the rings of his transformation washed over him, he looked down to find the water tribe clothes. He then called out to his friends.
"Sokka, Katara! I found you guys!" Danny called.
"Danny! We were so worried!" Katara exclaimed.
Sokka muttered, "She was worried," while being silently relieved that Danny was safe.
"Who's your new friend?" Danny asked.
"Danny, this is Aang, Aang, this is Danny," Katara introduced.
"Nice to meet you," both said at the same time. They grinned at each other.
"Great," Sokka said, "And Danny, Aang here is an airbender. And that's his 'flying' bison, Appa."
"Awesome!" Danny exclaimed. Sokka face palmed. Leave it to Danny to have the excitement of an eight year old.
After a ride home on Appa, Aang further proved he was an airbender to the village. He reintroduced fun, and eventually took Katara and Danny out penguin sledding. Danny left the two alone afterwards, heading home instead of exploring the fire navy ship that they found. Sure, he wanted to learn bending (or controlling his powers in his case) as much as Katara did, but he knew that exploring a ship was not the answer. Besides, it brought up too many bad memories.
When Danny got to the southern water tribe, his enhanced hearing picked up on a sound and he turned around to see a flare that was fired. His eyes widened as he hoped that fire navy ships didn't see that. If they did, he hoped that he wouldn't be recognized. It would be hard to explain why the village thought he could water bend while the fire nation recognized him as the son of a well known general.
"What happened!?" Danny suddenly heard someone exclaim. He turned around to find Sokka running up to him.
"i don't know, Katara and Aang were exploring that fire navy ship that you two showed me once," Danny replied honestly.
Sokka began muttering something about traitors as the whole village gathered at the entrance to await Aang and Katara's return.
When they arrived, Aang tried to explain that there was a booby trap and they 'boobied right into it,' but Sokka wouldn't listen.
"Don't blame Katara. It's my fault. I brought her there," Aang claimed.
"Aha! The traitor confesses," Sokka exclaimed. "Warriors away from the enemy. The foreigner is banished from our village."
After Katara tried to talk Sokka out of his decision, and failed, she claimed that she was banished, too.
Aang wouldn't let her turn her back on the village. But it wasn't Danny's village. He wouldn't be choosing over his tribe, his own family. It was wrong for him to be there in the first place. He was part of the fire nation, after all.
After Aang said his goodbye to Katara, someone called out.
"Wait!"
Danny ran forward.
"I'm going with you."
"You have a life here. I can't let you walk away from your village, same with Katara," Aang countered.
"But this isn't my village. I'm a foreigner, too. From the north pole," Danny replied.
"Really?" Aang gasped. "Why don't you teach Katara water bending. You said you were a water bender."
"A beginner. I left while I was still a beginner so I could travel," Danny replied. "I visited Ba Sing Se along with other places." Not a complete lie, Danny thought.
"Alright, hop aboard," Aang consented. "It'll be nice to have some company."
Danny turned to Katara.
"I'll miss you, Katara. You too, Sokka, and all of the rest of you. In this past month, you've all become like a family to me. Especially you, Katara, and you, Sokka. You became like my brother and sister. I hope we will meet up again sometime soon." Danny gave Katara a hug and waved to Sokka and the village.
"By Danny," they called, while the young ones called goodbye to Aang as well.
"Let's see your bison fly now," Sokka said.
Once Danny was on the saddle, Aang called, "Come on Appa, you can do it, yip yip!"
Appa stood up, but didn't fly. He turned and walked away. Danny and Aang were silent. Katara got mad at Kanna, while Sokka prepared for battle.
Danny and Aang lay in an odd ice formation, with Appa underneath them. Danny was on top, looking around while Aang talked to Appa.
Appa grunted and Aang replied, "Yeah, I liked her, too."
"Hey, Aang?" Danny called.
"Yeah?" Aang replied sadly.
"You may want to take a look at this."
Aang looked up to see a fire navy ship heading towards the village.
He commanded Appa to wait at the ice formation, and called for Danny to follow him. Danny hesitated for a mere second, thinking of the consequences of meeting up with the fire nation. He narrowed his eyes, he'd go through that if only to help the village defend itself. He followed Aang.
They found some penguins as they were running, and got on them, ready to penguin slide their way to the village.
When they got there, Sokka was on the ground and someone suited in fire nation armor was standing in front of him. Aang penguin sledded under the presumed leader's feet while Danny sledded under three of the guard's feet. Danny looked around, relieved. None of the soldiers had a round enough belly to be his father. But Aang had knocked the leader's helmet off… and Danny recognized him immediately. It was Zuko, the prince of the fire nation. But why was he way down south? Why wasn't he with his father and sister in the fire nation?
Danny and Aang slid to a stop. Aang greeted Katara and Sokka as Danny looked downwards to hide his face. His hair wasn't recognizable, but his face surely would be. He had the most unmistakably crystal blue eyes, after all. Zuko glanced at the newcomers. A young boy dressed in blue, likely another poor attempt at a warrior, and the other caught his eye. Blue arrow tattoos and orange, yellow, and brown clothes, not to mention a bald head. Definitely not a member of the water tribe, but still not a one-hundred-year-old master of the elements. Zuko stood up and sent his soldiers to surround the new comers, after the three that were knocked down stood up, of course. Danny turned so Zuko wouldn't be able to see his face.
"Looking for me?" Aang asked.
"You're the airbender? You're the Avatar?" Zuko asked skeptically.
Danny's eyes widened slightly and he turned his head to see what was going on. Luckily, Zuko was entirely focused on Aang.
A battle ensued, and Danny moved out of Aang's way. But when Aang gave himself up, Danny narrowed his eyes.
He sprinted to the water's edge and dove in. He swam out after the ship until Katara yelled out at him to stop. Right. Human. Should be getting hypothermia right now… but he wasn't exactly human, so to keep up appearances, he turned around and swam back.
Darn, Danny thought to himself as a blanket was wrapped around him. Now I can't go ghost!
Sokka had prepared a canoe, but Danny called, "Appa!" as the flying bison walked over the hill.
The group tried to get Appa to fly, but nothing worked. Katara's positive encouragement didn't work, and neither did Sokka's words of similar meaning to 'fly.' Danny, however, remembered what Aang had been saying each time he tried to get his bison to fly.
"Yip yip!" Danny called hopefully.
Danny had to hold the blanket wrapped around him tightly (appearances and all) in order for it not to fall off. Appa lifted his tail and rose into the air.
Sokka acted overly excited, Katara was happy, and Danny was well used to the sensation of flying by now.
When they reached the fire navy ship, they saw Aang fighting Zuko, until Zuko threw a few good fire blasts and Aang fell into the water.
Without warning, Danny dove in after him, knowing that humans couldn't last in the cold water for long.
However, unexpectedly, Aang shot out of the water in a twister of water. He had grabbed Danny on the way up and dropped him onto the deck. Danny rolled when he hit the metal surface, gazing in awe at Aang's glowing tattoos. Zuko had a shocked face. When Aang sent out a band of water, Danny leaped higher than a human would normally be able to jump, and ran over to catch Aang when he fell. His arrow tattoo and eyes stopped glowing, and Katara and Sokka landed and ran over, ignoring the soaking wet teen in favor of the downed Avatar. Danny handed Aang to Katara and ran to grab Aang's staff. However, Zuko was holding onto the other end. Unfortunately, this gave Zuko the perfect opportunity to get a good look at Danny's face. Zuko managed to climb up, but froze as he stared at Danny's face.
Zuko whispered, "Lu Ten?" Danny froze, but quickly came back to his senses. He poked Zuko in the face with the staff a few times until he fell. However, he grabbed onto the anchor before he hit the water. When Danny turned around, he found that Sokka's feet were frozen and he was trying to break the ice. Danny watched as Katara froze some fire nation soldiers. Danny ran and jumped onto Appa and once he was free, Sokka did the same. They flew away just as Iroh walked out. Iroh helped Zuko on board while he ordered a fireball to be shot at the Avatar.
Aang deflected it, causing snow to fall onto the fire navy's ship.
"Good news for the firelord," Iroh claimed, "the fire nations greatest threat is just a little kid."
"That kid, uncle, just did this," Zuko countered. "I won't underestimate him again."
Iroh simply stayed silent.
Zuko continued quietly, "And uncle… Your son is still alive."
THE END!
That idea just popped into my head a little while ago.
I've already gotten enough encouragement to make this into an actual story, so as soon as I finish my other story, and write a story that was the result of a challenge, I'll continue this.
As of right now, it is paused in its making. But don't worry. I will come back to finish this at some point.