Author's Note: New series featuring a story about each character based on something that happened when they were little. Like, we all know that Aang had to have had a mother, so... what about her? I'll always state what's going on before the installment begins (see below). I'll update, but I don't know how often. I'm thinking weekly intervals, give or take a little.

This is a short and sweet idea of when the monks collected Aang. I'm going to go ahead and tell you that this is, once again, only an idea. This is based on no facts, only circumstances that probably didn't occur as demonstrated in the following account. I repeat: This is not what actually happened. This is only an idea.

Thanks to my beta Child of the Mind!

Disclaimer: If I owned Avatar, then my theories wouldn't be theories. They'd be facts, circumstances, truths... yeah. So, therefore, I do not own Avatar.

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1: His Inevitable Destiny (Aang, age 3)

Misaki saw the monks before they arrived. They came through the thick mist that tumbled over the hillside on that crisp Autumn evening, the Day of Separation. They approached her, in a slow but sure gait, with a sort of certainty that Misaki dreaded. The less distance that the monks put between she and them, the closer she held her son.

When they finally reached her, she clutched her son tightly. Then she spoke in a hurried fit. "He's not supposed to go to the Southern Temple until he is a least five years of age."

Three elderly monks stood before her. They lived at the Southern Air Temple and had come to collect Aang from his mother. "You know the procedure," the one at the front of the group told her. "We have to begin his training as early as possible, and we don't want him to... have any family-related recollections." He did not smile, did not offer condolences, gave no sympathy... this was the way.

Misaki held the bundle in her arms with tender care. "You mean that you don't want him to... remember me," she said, her voice barely above a whisper.

"Correct. It has been this way every time an Avatar has been an airbender. It is tradition."

A second monk took a step forward. "Memories, attachments, they get in the way. The Avatar does not need earthly attachments." He looked at the third -the only one with a hint of emotion on his face- but kept his speech directed to Misaki. "He cannot know you because if something were to happen, he would take his own emotions into account."

"What about love?" Misaki questioned. "Can he not fall in love?"

"He will love," the third informed her. "He must love. He is human, he is capable of all human emotions."

"But his love must be unbiased," the second toned in.

The first monk turned to glare at his colleagues. "Misaki," he said, his words pained, "this is a very complicated matter. He must have the ability to go into the Avatar State at will and must be fully aware of his actions when that time comes, and earthly attachments block his seventh chakra. You know that."

Misaki nodded solemnly. She did know about chakras, knew that open chakras were essential to controlling the Avatar State. Everyone knew this. It was basic knowledge- and she was more informed than most, being the biological mother of the Avatar. "I... understand."

"Good," the first monk said. "Now... we need the child."

She looked down toward her son, her only son. "The Avatar," she breathed. She redirected her gaze to the first monk. "What about Aya?"

"What about her?"

"Do I... never tell her? Never let her know about her brother, her twin brother?"

"Do not tell her. She must never know."

Misaki's heart fell. "So I'll never see him again?"

"Impossible to tell. No, you will never see your son again, but you may very well see Avatar Aang." The first monk held out his hands. "His care at the monastery will be nothing short os pristine. He will be perfectly safe."

Tears brimmed in Aang's mother's reluctant eyes. "I love you," she whispered as she carefully transferred her son to the monk's open arms.

The third monk approached her and brought her into his embrace. "I will be his guardian," he told her. "He will be fine, I promise."

"Gyatso," the first barked- something that completely contradicted the way he looked. "We must leave." Gyatso gave Misaki one last pat of sympathy as he rejoined his colleagues.

Misaki's tear-filled eyes gazed at the steadily fading image of her only son, her baby, somehow knowing with an unspeakable sorrow that this would be the very last time she would ever see him. It broke her heart.

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Author's Note: I always kind of wondered about Aang's first family- because we all know he had to have one. This is just an idea of how the whole thing worked out. He chose the toys at some ceremony a few days before this, and, well... yeah. This was shorter than most of the other installments in this series. Review!