AN: I would just like to take this moment to thank Marisol Maza for giving me this idea. Go read her fic "Avatar High" (which is not the typical "Gaang at high school" type of fic) up to the latest two chapters and you'll understand what I mean /shameless plug for fic that isn't even mine. So anyway, I figure there's no freaking way that an entire race of people could really be wiped out like that, particularly a race of people who would so easily fit the profile of ninjas. Yeah, Airbending ninjas would be awesome. Anyway, here's the work of my brilliance, concieved while reading someone else's fic at three in the morning on the tiny screen of an iPhone in the dark. Yeah, it's a wonder I still have killer vision.

Never the Last
The Wind Still Blows

A long time ago, before the Great War, there were Four Nations: The Water Tribes, a graceful and peaceful people who learned to control the water from the moon; The Fire Nation, a proud and tempered race who could make flames spout from their hands; The Earth Kingdom, a strong and noble race of men who could move the earth itself; And the Air Nomads, the adventurous and good-humored race of people who controlled the winds and skies from their four great Temples. But the Fire Nation got greedy. They grew quickly, mastering the arts of forging, industrial power, and the crafting of steel, but their advances had a painfully obvious price. The Fire Nation's lands had never been known for being rich in natural resources, and their new industrial revolution was quickly burning what little they had away. Combine that with their latest fire lord, Sozin, a megalomaniacal madman on a massive power trip, and you've got one answer: war.

It all began with the death of Avatar Roku, of the Fire Nation. By the Avatar's cycle, that meant that the new Avatar would be an Airbender. But Sozin was patient. He knew he didn't have enough forces to properly find him and kill him without anyone escaping with him. So, he waited, waited for a day that had been predicted by historians, the day of Yang-Chen's Comet (named for the Avatar who famously discovered it). Based on his studies, on the day the comet appeared, it would amplify the power of every Firebender ten-fold. It would come longer before the Avatar would discover who he was and leave the temples to become fully realized, and so he would be sure to eliminate him and all other Airbenders for good measure in one fell swoop. And then the day came.

The attack hit the four Temples like a typhoon. The Northern Air Temple, though it was the pinacle of the Air Nomad's technological and cultural achievements, paled when faced with the war machines of the Fire Nation. The Eastern Temple literally ran red with blood (though an odd Guru later came and cleaned the place up by hand). The upside down Temple in the West shook and nearly fell itself to the bottom of the ravine it rested on. Oddly enough, the invasion of the Southern Air Temple very nearly failed, the efforts of Monk Gyatso holding back the Firebenders for as long as he could, but in the end, he fell, and the Southern Airbenders did as well. The genocide complete, Sozin sat back and waited, expecting the new Avatar to be born in the Southern Water tribe, as the last one was in the Northern tribe and like the regular Avatar Cycle, the Water Tribes had a cycle between them (which was strangely absent in the Air Nomads, or maybe not so strangely due to the random nature of the winds). In any case, no longer having the advantage of a magical comet and facing their polar opposite, the Fire Lord did the most logical thing he could do: he declared war on both remaining nations and just occasionally sent members of the Fire Navy to the South to kill as many as they could and capture any Waterbenders they could find. But oddly enough, the new Avatar never showed up.

Angered, Sozing realized that the new Avatar must have survived, escaped, and hidden himself. And so he spent the rest of his life hunting the Avatar, leaving the war to his generals, until the day came that he deemed himself too old. At that point his eldest son Azulon took up the quest to find the Avatar, and continued the journey until he, too, grew tired of it and returned to allow his son, his younger son Ozai as the elder had already decided to take a stronger interest in the war, to take up the torch. Ozai did not last as long though, as he was as diabolical and brilliant as his grandfather was, and knew that it was a fool's errand at that point. Rather, he found better use for his time in plotting to steal the throne from his elder brother Iroh. In the end, he had his nephew Lu Ten assassinated, and blamed it on the Earth Kingdom, then, through clever plotting, deception, and assassinating his own father, he became the new Fire Lord while his brother became a disgraced general. And then it came to be that Ozai's own son Zuko, in combination with a painful burn to the face, was punished for insolence (if good-natured insolence) and disrespect (if good-natured disrespect) was commanded by his father to hunt for the Avatar in order to restore his honor, and banished. And so it was that the cycle began anew, the royalty of the Fire Nation forever to hunt for the Avatar, the last Airbender.

Or was he? After all, who's to say that all the Air Nomads were at the Four Temples on that day? No, that would not make sense. The great explorers of the world, the adventurers who traveled the Four Nations as a hobby, why would they all be cooped up together in the temples, particularly when the view of a majestic comet that only shows up once every century is best in, guess where, the Fire Nation. There were a few more scattered across the Earth Kingdom and the Water Tribes, but they remained mostly concentrated in the Fir Nation to view the beautiful (and sadly deadly) spectacle that was Yang-Chen's comet. After the tragic event, the last few hundered survivors all realized that they had to lay low. The Fire Nation needed to believe that the Nomads were all dead, or else they would track them down and kill them off until they really were gone. To protect their culture, they would have to remain hidden until the Fire Nation was defeated, and if not... the few times that they actually arranged meetings with each other, they all agreed it would be better to simply off themselves.

Years passed and the war dragged on for a hundred years. The surviving Nomads were very careful to only marry amongst themselves within the Fire Nation, though in the other nations they were free to take whatever partners they wanted, and they did have children, and plenty, but sadly no matter how many children they had, the number of Airbenders was dwindling. Many of the children lacked the gift, if not most, and in fact, those in the Fire Nation hid the gift from their children who did have it, for fear of exposure. It seemed that though the culture would live on, the gift of Airbending would inevitably die out. Until the day that Avatar had returned.

The now old survivors of the Nomads and their families rejoiced at the news. The fact that the return of the Avatar (the original Airbending Avatar from a century ago no less) had arrived so close to the hundreth anniversary of the death of their people was clearly a sign from the Spirits themselves that the war would end soon, and that they would win. Months passed though, and yet the Avatar still had not defeated Ozai, still had not freed them from their self inflicted prisons, and still had not given them the chance to restore their people to their former glory. Most of the Air Nomads both old and young had lost hope. But not one. There was one Nomad left who still believed in the Avatar, and knew that he would restore balance to the world, no matter what. A young Airbender, one of the last in the world, with barely any knowledge of her art, and she knew that not only was the Avatar destined to save the world, but that somehow, she was destined to help him, and to learn from him. And if not, then she would make it her destiny as soon as she could reach him. Her name was On Ji. And this is her story.

A few coins clattered on the counter and the girl thanked the man behind it. She turned away, towards the stairs, and walked towards them, yawning slightly after her long day of walking. That was one of the things that most depressed her about the loss of the Air Nomads, the simultaneous loss of the sky bisons. Not only did they make excellent modes of travel, but they were supposedly great companions and life-long friends. A shame. But without one, On Ji had to walk all the way to the Western Air Temple, and if that wasn't where the Kuzon... the Avatar was, she would have to walk even farther to find him, so she might as well get used to it. As she walked up the stairs of the inn to the room she had just rented, she sighed. Here she was, an Airbender, one of the four great benders, known for their amazing and fun ways of getting from a) to b), and here she was with no glider, no bison, and no idea of how to go about making an air scooter ('Note to self: Get the Avatar to teach me that'). Thinking about it, that was just sad. An Airbender needing to walk. But On Ji quickly shook those thoughts from her head when she reached her room and opened the door. The room inside was small and cramped, with a dirty futon for a bed lying on the floor. The room itself was filthy, and the smell wafted straight out into the hallway, causing On Ji to wrinkle her nose in disgust. It was dark too, and while there was a candle in the room, there were no matches, further evidence that even the simple "non-bending" citizens of the Fire Nation itself were inferior to firebenders. And the girl had neglected to bring any matches herself, too. It wasn't exactly a perfect room, but even though On Ji had access to plenty of money, she could only take so much, and it needed to be preserved for the week's walk to the Temple. She sighed once again, and stepped into the windowless room, closing the door behind her and gingerly feeling her way to the futon with her foot. Finally she found it and laid herself across the tiny matress, closing her eyes and releasing large bursts of air from her nose to blow away the smell in an attempt to drift away into dreamland.

She was a normal girl. Playing simple games with her friends, going to school, spending time with her family, living a normal life for a non-bender. Her family was relatively wealthy, and had good enough credentials to eventually get her into the Fire Nation Academy for Girls, what with her father being a fairly high ranked Firebender in the army and all. She would get a good education, marry some nice guy, and become a housewife, same as most of the other non-bending women in the Fire Nation. But then came the day when the news of the Avatar's return spread, and her grandmother heard the news. She immediately came to visit, paying On Ji's father no mind, same as always. She really hated Father. But the odd thing was, she ignored On Ji's mother as well. Instead, she went straight to On Ji, alone, and got her to come to stay with her for a while, because she had a special secret to tell her.

She was an Airbender in training. Grandmother had told her that important secret, and it seemed to fit in On Ji's mind. The young girl didn't doubt the fact for a second. And all of a sudden, Grandmother (who was now to be addressed simply as Gran when in private) became her teacher, instructing her in the basics of Airbending while at the same time teaching her both the ancient culture of Airbending and the secret of their existence after the Fire Nation's genocide. On Ji proved to be a natural, easily breezing throught the first four levels of Airbending, though the cultural differences between the two nations were difficult to keep up with. Still, it was all very exciting. Working under the radar and keeping the traditions of an entire race alive, and there was so much to learn, it could've lasted forever.

She was an untrained Airbender. Gran had passed away a week ago. She was now back with her family, her strict soldier father and her completely oblivious mother she didn't dare tell. She knew only the most basic of Airbending, and back in the old days, according to Gran, she would be on level with five year olds. And she went about life again. Life as normal. Strict, rigid life, with no fun music (only the traditional music of the Fire Nation, which, while nice, couldn't compare to an Air melody on the Sungi Horn, played by a true Airbender), no artistic freedom, very little fun that she could derive from playing the rather basic (and militarily directed as well) games encouraged by their instructors, and worst of all, no dancing. Gran had taught her to dance. The old woman still had some bounce in her bones, and she had shown On Ji how to dance, and On Ji had absolutely loved it. The motions, both subtle and extravegant, the balance, the grace, it all fell together so naturally, and mixed with Airbending so easily. It was absolute bliss to her, and she couldn't have it anymore.

She was a girl in love, even if she didn't realize it. His name was Kuzon, and he was just the nicest guy. She'd had been having a nice conversation with him too, until that jerk Hide decided to come flaunt his ego for a while. Ugh, what had ever possessed her to go out with him that one time? Now he acted like he owned her, and she couldn't speak out against it because "it wasn't proper". In any case, Hide dragged her off to try and kiss her (yeah right bub. A couple well timed head movements and you get nothing with no clue why), and she hadn't seen him until the next day at school, when he made a fool of himself and then, in the pop quiz, surprised her by showing knowledge of the day of Sozin's Comet. Almost first-hand knowledge. Was he like her? She couldn't know, and she couldn't check. But it would be amazing.

She was having the time of her life. Kuzon had shocked her once again, hosting a secret dance party in a cave and inviting everyone (except Hide. No one wanted Hide there). She really couldn't help wondering if he really was from the colonies, or if he was something... else, especially with his dances from a hundred years ago. A hundred years... but then he did something she really didn't expect, and asked her to dance. Now, to be clear, she had avoided dancing simply for the purpose of remaining seemingly conformed to society. Really, she wanted nothing more than to go onto that dance floor and bust a move, so to speak, but she couldn't. Until he offered the chance. No matter how hard she tried to resist, she couldn't say no to those bright gray eyes. And so she danced, some really interesting Earth Kingdom dance (which in and of itself was suspicious because according to him it was "how they do it in the ballrooms of Ba Sing Se", the city that had been captured less than a month ago with all Earth Kingdom citizens placed under house arrest. How could he have learned that already? No, it wasn't possible, which meant he'd have had to have been in the city before it fell. There was no way he was Fire Nation, even from the colonies. Could he be... but still, she smiled and danced with him until he invited his friend to dance with him instead. And they looked good together. That oddly bugged her

She was determined. Hide had decided to be an ass and bring the Headmaster and several military guards to crash the party, and had nearly gotten Kuzon caught. It was only by the sheer brilliance of one of their friends that he managed to get away, when everyone disguised themselves by mimicking his headband. But then, it was the strangest thing. Another one of her friends said he waved to Kuzon as he left, and he swore that the rear cave exit literally closed up, a wall of rock. So, that meant he was either travelling with an Earthbender, or he was... she had to find him again. Somehow, she had to find where he was. Because he was an Airbender, a master no less, and he was perfect to teach her to Airbend. Absolutely... perfect.

She was on the run. She just left a note on her bed telling her parents she had taken some money and left, and adding a side note to the bottom asking them to give the second letter she left beneath the first to her friend Shei, which basically consisted of "Shei, do me a favor, go find Hide and kick him in the crotch for me". She went on a long journey, picking up what few tidbits she could pick up about the Avatar, until she got a major breakthrough when the news of the Day of Black Sun invasion spread throughout the Nation. A heavy assault on the capitol during a solar eclipse when the Firebenders didn't have their bending. And what's more, because the Fire Lord had had prior knowledge of the attack, it had failed, miserably. Apparently all of the adults were captured, while the younger members of the group excaped, including the Avatar! And all it took was a quick check of her map to know that the most obvious, safest place in the world for an Airbender and his bison was the Western Air Temple, the mighty palace that hung upside down from a cliff face. A smile crept across On Ji's face. She knew where he'd be, and now all she needed to do was get there.