Spirits of Air

by A.S. Gryffindor

Author's Note: Here is my first attempt at an Avatar Fic. Hope you all enjoy it. I don't own Avatar the Last Airbender.

Summary: Aang never left the Southern Air Temple when he learned of his status as the Avatar. Instead he was there when Sozin's army began their attacks on the Air Nomads. One hundred years later, amid the chaos of global war, five orphans and a lone Fire Sage who remains loyal only to the Avatar must help him restore balance to the world.

Prologue: 100 years past

The Air Temple Sanctuary shook as the combination of human and dragon fireblasts bombarded it causing the Avatar statues to shake and a few blocks of rock to fall from the high, domed ceiling. Gyatso herded the children to the far back of the room away from both the falling debris and the statues but one child remained behind. His back was rigid with suppressed anger though Gyatso had a hard time deciding if the young monk was angry because the Fire Nation was attacking them or if it was the last words the elder had spoken to the young boy that caused him to be so. The young Airbender's angry grey eyes were glaring at the now sealed sanctuary doors that appeared to him to be but a paper defense against the Firebenders onslaught and his tattooed hands were clinched into fists. Another blast hit the sanctuary, causing more rubble to fall around the young boy and the statue of Avatar Roku to fall over very close to him but the young master Airbender took no heed of it nor of the elderly monk who was moving toward him. His peaceful, idyllic world had just been destroyed and his teachers were fighting, maybe dying because of him. They had told him to remain hidden until the battle was over but how could he just remain there while they... He shook his head and his fist clinched and unclenched while tears blurred the door before him.

"Come away, Aang," Gyatso's voice was calm, as if the world hadn't just erupted into a raging inferno. As if everything they had ever known wasn't being destroyed before their eyes.

"No," Aang said, his normally happy voice was laced with rare anger. "I can't....They can't just expect me to... Why...?"

"Aang, please come back to the others," Gyatso place a hand on his protege's shoulder but it was promptly shaken off by Aang who glared at his mentor and friend, his eyes seeming to glow for a bare instant.

"No! I will not stay here in safety while the others fight and die because of me...because of who I am!" he paused a moment, his head bowed and his feet moving of their own accord toward the sealed door. "How can they ask that of me? I have to help. I can't stay here. I won't."

"No, Aang. If you are killed here then..." Gyatso's calm voice held a note of panic.

"Then I'll only be reborn into the next nation," There was a finality to the young monks words. "I can't just stand by and do nothing. I'm the Avatar. I have to try. If I don't then I'll always wonder."

"Even if you're not yet ready?" Gyatso's voice was soft and a little sad. "Even if you die?"

Aang shivered a little. He was not yet ready to face his destiny as the Avatar and nobody knew this better then he did. He'd only just been made aware of his identity as the master of all four elements a week ago and had thus far only mastered one of them. He knew he wasn't ready and yet how could he stand by, letting everyone else fight in his place until they were all killed. He was a master Airbender. He should be out there fighting too not hiding away like a child. Even more so than this though, he was the Avatar. Surely he could turn the tide of this battle or reason with the Firebenders. The Avatar was a force for balance in the world.

"I have to do something to stop this even if...even if I don't survive. The balance of the world must be maintained at any cost," Aang's voice was sad but firm and it made Gyatso proud.

Aang looked over at his mentor and for a long, agonizing moment silent communication passed between the two monks. Gyatso thought he saw a shadow of his old and dear friend, Avatar Roku, in the young monk's eyes and he nodded his acceptance of Aang's decision. There really had been no need to question him so. Gyatso knew Aang perhaps better than anyone in the whole temple and he knew Aang would never stand by or remain hidden in safety when others were in danger. It had never been his way to ignore those in need of help.

"Be careful out there, young Avatar. The world cannot afford to lose you, especially not now."

"Hopefully, it won't have to," Aang bowed to his mentor. "Thank you for all your teachings, Master. May the winds carry your spirit to freedom my old friend."

Gyatso bowed low to Aang and then moved to shelter the young ones whom he'd been sent to guard. Whatever else happened today, they were the future of the Air Nomads. He would see that they were protected. He heard the snap of Aang's glider and the whoosh of air as he flew out the one of the holes in the ceiling to face his destiny.

"May the Spirits of the Air guard you as well, my dearest friend."

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The air around him was full of acrid smoke that burned his lungs and stung his eyes but Aang would not allow that to stop him. He had a duty to perform. Whatever happened he would protect the only family he'd ever known. Below him he could see the Air monks facing off against an endless sea of of Firebenders and from his aerial vantage point he could tell they were hopelessly outnumbered and outpowered. The sky above him was a deep, blood red from the comet that had blazed across it a few moments before the attack began and it was augmenting the Firebenders already considerable power. The Airbenders stood no chance against them while they were so empowered and Aang had a moment of doubt in his choice to face them now rather than later. What if he wasn't strong enough? What if he failed? What if he couldn't protect his friends?

He heard a chorus of screams below and saw the double line of Air monks that had been guarding the sanctuary break as a massive wave of fire overwhelmed their ability to defend themselves. The smell of burning bodies caused Aang to gage and tears to spring to his eyes but, as he saw the Fire Nation army advance toward the place where his friends and mentor where hiding, he forgot everything but the reason he had come out of hiding himself and his duty to the world. He descended rapidly and landed with a gust of air in front of the sanctuary doors, his staff planted firmly in front of him, his slight body shielding the remaining monks from their attackers.

"You will go no further!"

The Firebenders paused in surprise to stare at the young Airbender before parting to reveal their young commander. General Jin gave Aang an evil sneer and a mocking bow before looking the boy over, noting the mastery tattoos the boy wore.

"So you're the Avatar? You're merely a child," his voice was cold and emotionless. "How can you possibly believe you can stand against us alone when all the others before you have fallen."

Aang's eyes moved over the burnt bodies of those who'd already fallen and he felt his heart lurch. Tears fell from his eyes and he bowed his head. Then he heard something which gave him hope: voices amid the wreckage of the temple that lay scattered around him. Some of the monks had survived the inferno. Not all of them had fallen with that strike. Aang glared up at the commander, his face set and eyes full of seriousness that belied his young age.

"Why are you doing this? Why risk throwing the world out of balance? What do you think you will gain by this?" despite his age, Aangs voice rang with authority.

"The Air Nomads are a weak nation and don't deserve to exist. We will cleanse the lands of it's taint. As for what we'll gain..." Jin flicked a hand and twenty Firebenders moved in unison to surrounded Aang, preventing his escape on foot while the nearby monks called his name frantically. "We will be removing the Fire Nation's greatest threat: You. Then none can stand against us. Without the Avatar the world will lose all hope and we will reign uncontested."

The Firebenders punched the air in front of them and streams of fire rushed toward Aang but he took no heed of them as his eyes and tattoos began to glow and the until now dormant Avatar Spirit took over. The flames were swept aside on a strong current of wind that dissipated them. Aang rose into the air and glared down at the Firebenders who were nearby and an thousand voices spoke at once, the sound of it carried by the winds that were blowing around the boy so that even Gyatso heard it inside the sanctuary.

"You dare destroy the balance of the world by eliminating one of it's Nations? That cannot be allowed!" Aang rose several more feet on a column of air and made great sweeping motions with his hands.

Whatever direction he moved his hands in the soldiers found themselves pushed away by a wave of water that carried them away from the temple courtyard while leaving them unharmed. The dragons found themselves buffeted by high winds that threatened to smash them against the mountainside and which caused their breath to be blow back toward them. Rather than remain they flew away from the temple despite their masters protests. They had no desire to face the wrath of an angry Avatar no matter what would happen to them at the hands of their masters later.

The young Avatar floated on a current of air and continued to push the Fire Nation army away from the temple with waves of water or air or localized earthquakes. Jin managed to cling to one of the temple pillar decorations, while some archers remained hidden in the trees, sheltered from the winds and water by a low wall that surrounded the temple garden there. Aang was completely unaware of them as he began to weave the air around him into a vast ball, which contained all four elements within it, intending to create a shield that would protect the temple and those still inside from further attacks.

"You will never destroy my people," Aang's own voice momentarily overrode the thousand others and for a moment Jin's eyes were caught by the stormy grey eyes of the Airbender. "And you shall never harm them again."

Jin made a small motion with his hand unnoticed by the untrained Avatar and three arrows flew toward the unaware Avatar's back to find their marks. Two buried themselves deep in his left shoulder and a third, knocked of course by the winds, lodged itself in his right thigh. Aang jerked as each one hit and then flung his hand out toward the direction the arrows came from. The archers found themselves encased in ice. A trail of fire streaked toward Aang and burned across his right arm. He flinched and turned to see Jin smiling evilly at him, a whip made from blue fire in his hand. Aang made a sharp movement with his arms and Jin was encased in a pillar of stone but not before the whip struck him a second time across his chest burning his clothes and the flesh beneath. The Avatar Spirit flickered for a moment as the poison on the arrow tips began to move through Aang's blood. He felt himself getting weaker by the second but he saw the massive invasion force moving forward toward the temple again seemingly unfazed by his attacks. He'd failed and now he was going to die. It had all been for nothing.

"No. No... Please....help me..," there were tears in the young Avatar's eyes as the glow continued to fade away and the pain of his wounds intensified. "Just a few moments...please... I want to save them..."

For a final time the Avatar Spirit moved through the young Air monk and aided him in the creation of a protective shield of elements that he set in place around the Southern Air Temple. The Fire Nation army was pushed far away from the temple by the power of the shield and from this moment foreword no one could pass through it without permission of the Air Nomads that dwelled within. Similar shields were set in place around the other Air Temples as the Avatar Spirit interpreted Aang's desire to protect his people to include all the temples and any Air Nomad caught outside of a temple at it's creation.

As the glow faded from the young Airbender's eyes, Aang could feel himself falling from his place in the air. He found he no longer had the strength to bend the air around him. The combination of the poison and the power he'd just used left him to weak to do anything to stop his fall or to even slow it down. Aang could feel the air rushing passed him and felt a moment of fear before all concerns and fears were swept away. He'd done it. His people were safe from the Fire Nation and from the terrible fate that had awaited them. The Air Nomads would survive now. He smiled as he watched the multicolored dome swirling overhead. His friends were safe now and the war would never touch them again. The world was sliding in and out of focus around him, though he thought he saw Appa flying toward him and seemed to hear shouts from the Air monks that were still alive. He felt like he was floating and he felt comforted by the sensation. He closed his eyes and his last thought was of the people he'd just saved before all was shrouded in darkness.