The Story So Far

In Taking Chances, we learned that Aang is a modern-day Avatar, or someone who ushers spirits from one life to the next after death. But problems arose when Aang met a stubborn spirit named Toph.

At first, he had a knack for making her angry with his not-so-subtle suggestions to move on to her next life, which she was not ready to do. But eventually the two grew to become friends and made it a habit to spend adequate time with each other every day.

Meanwhile, problems arose in Aang's real-world life when he found out that his crush, Katara; and Zuko, his rival; had begun dating. Luckily for Aang, he had found a new friend in Toph that he could confide in with his feelings for Katara after feeling crushed by Zuko.

But things started changing when Aang and Toph began to have more intimate discussions with each other. Toph revealed to Aang how she died in a car crash on an icy night. They also talked about her regaining her eyesight after her death and Aang at one point even attempted describing Toph to herself.

Mingled in with Aang's real-world life with Katara and Sokka and his spirit-world life with Toph were frequent visits from Roku. Roku repeatedly warned Aang to not become attached to Toph because one way or another, she was going to have to move on. Aang's worry over the future of his best friend grew and grew until eventually he began to ignore Roku's warnings and decided that he would not force Toph into the next world; partly because of their newly developing feelings for each other that neither had admitted to at this point.

Unfortunately, Roku became angry and forced himself into Aang's body and locked Aang in the spirit world until Roku could have Toph moved on. Frustrated, Aang concentrated all he could on Toph and somehow made his way out of the spirit world. He caught up with Roku just in time, but reluctant to cause her friend any further problems, Toph decided that she would move on to her next life. The two shared a heart-filled goodbye and then Toph finally moved on.

Roku comforted a heartbroken Aang as much as he could and then allowed Aang back into his body.

Now, Aang has to adjust to life without his best friend, but things are changing and Aang will soon make discoveries that lead him to a whole new adventure.

Prologue

Aang woke up to a black sky with several stone pillars surrounding the ground that he lay on.

"Spirit world," he muttered to himself.

Suddenly Roku appeared before him and Aang respectfully bowed.

It had been two weeks since Toph had moved on and this was supposed to be his first day back at school after Kana finally was convinced that his sleep-walking fits were over. Why wouldn't his first day back at school be accompanied with his first trip back to the spirit world?

"Aang."

"Yes, Roku."

"You have had two weeks to recover, but now it is time for a talk."

"Oh no," Aang thought.

"You may have been justified in your feelings for the spirit, but that does not change the fact that you broke several rules and undermined my authority on numerous occasions. I cannot allow this to slip by unnoticeably."

"Oh. No." Aang thought.

"Because of your lack of respect for the better judgement of those from the spirit world, your powers are hereby suspended. You will have no access to the spirit world, and you will have no contact with any spirits for the next month. Do you understand?"

Aang did a double-take. "This is a punishment?" he thought.

"Ummm...yeah. Sure. I guess. Whatever you say Master Roku."

"Very well. One more thing though; you have lost the privilage of retaining the memory of anything related to the spirit of Toph Bei Fong. Is that understood?"

Aang's gasped. Roku couldn't be serious!

"Ummm...no. That is not understood. Why are you taking away my memory of her? That is all I have!"

"You saw things that no one should have seen; things that...broke the rules. I'm sorry Aang, but for your protection, I cannot allow you to retain those particular events, and to do that, I must also wipe your memory of Toph. I'm sorry."

Aang couldn't believe it. It was an outrage. First Roku steals his body, then he steals his best friend. He was not about to let his memory go lightly.

"No. You can't do that to me! I...I won't let you!"

"I'm sorry Aang, but unfortunately, it has already been done. When you wake up, you will remember none of this and in one month, it will be as if you never had your powers as the Avatar and you will have a fresh start. I'm sorry it has to be this way, but I tried to warn you not to be attached to any spirits."

"Yeah," Aang said, "I'm sorry too."

"Your time here runs short. You must go. Goodbye Aang, I'll see you in a month."

Again, under his breath, Aang whispered, "As if I'll remember it."

Then, with a flash, Aang woke up in his room, unaware that in time, he would get his memory back, along with a lot more problems than he bargained for.

A/N: Thank you for sticking with the story this far.

I'd like to first of all say thank you to Wohitzi for being such a sport and letting me do this. If you have not read "Taking Chances" yet, then you really really really need to read it before reading this story. This story is taken directly after "Taking Chances" and is solely dependent on events that happen within that story. I want to congratulate Wohitzi for garnering a very decent number of readers for "Taking Chances" and I can only hope that I attract some of Wohitzi's readers for my sequel. If you read this first, you will certainly be lost. So, again, I want to extend my appreciation to Wohitzi for allowing me to go ahead and do this.

Now, I don't know about the rest of you who read Taking Chances, but personally (and this says nothing about the writing ability or style of Wohitzi) I was very disappointed and borderline emo at the end of that story. I felt so horrible for Aang and Toph that I couldn't bear to even think about this story. Then I got to thinking and decided that it wouldn't be such a bad idea for a sequel to this story. Well, my crazy mind reeled and reeled and finally came up with the perfect solution (and consequently more problems obviously) for Aang's and Toph's relationship.

Well, one thing led to another and I decided that this sequel needed to be heard, so I made contact with Wohitzi and I gained full permission to create, write, and post a sequel to "Taking Chances".

And so I did. The plots and subplots are buzzing about in my head right now and I personally am excited to see how I end up putting it all down.

One more announcement before I let you go on to Chapter 1. I have a beta-reader for this story in whom I fully trust for the criticism and editing of my sometimes jumbled up brain. She has already done a great job with this chapter and the next chapter and I am very excited to have Waffled Flambe as my beta for this story.

RR&E (Read, Review, and Enjoy!)