The Lost City

by storm9449

The White Lotus had for centuries protected the location of four secret cities only able to be reached by masters of their respective elements. When the Fire Nation attacked, the last of the Air Nomads retreated to their secret city and it's location was lost. This is the history of how Aang found The Lost City.

At the age of 13 Aang felt the burden of the loss of his people more than that of his role as the Avatar for the first time since he had been informed of The Hundred Years War. He had seen the war end with Firelord Zuko put into power, and the ceasing of outright hostilities between the Nations finally seemed to be a reality after months of negotiations and diplomacy. Sokka had returned to rebuild the Southern Water Tribe along with Suki, while Katara had stayed in the Fire Nation to support Aang. Toph had decided to travel to Ba Sing Se and work with the White Lotus on the rebuilding of the city and to find a place for her new skill of metal bending. Zuko had taken well to his new role as Firelord, and he had already begun to institute reforms which both he and Aang hoped would put the Fire Nation on a path of restoration. The Hundred Years war had taken a greater toll on the Fire Nation than its people were willing to admit.

With the vast majority of the peace talks accomplished and his friends dispersed, Aang was left to consider what to do about the preservation of the Air Nation's lost culture. Zuko had of course put together a group of advisors on the matter, mostly made up of scholars who were left with very little evidence to go on after 100 years of systematic genocide. A mixture of underground scholars who had managed to evade Fire Nation officials and scholars from the Earth Kingdom and the Northern Water Tribe. Unfortunately, for Aang the academics were unable to agree on much and he would have been better off trying to compile a history on his own. The remainder of the advisors Zuko had put together were slightly more useful as they were there to help physically rebuild the air temples, but they needed facts to base some of the restorations on.

As it was, Aang was quite happy to receive an invitation to a meeting of the White Lotus, since it gave him an excuse to let the academics bicker amongst themselves for a couple days. The meeting it turns out provided the answer to Aang's troubles, even if it would prove to be troublesome in itself. Hundreds of years before various masters of the bending styles had decided to test their limits and as a result had built homes in places one could only reach by being a master bender. Each home had over time with apprentices and growing families become small cities in their own rights, the locations of which were passed down to only the greatest masters of their own elements. By Aang's time the cities had withdrawn into themselves accepting only the rare visitor and even then visitors were not guaranteed a return trip. The Avatar had never before been informed of the cities due to their connections to all four elements. The White Lotus was for the first time making an exception, because while they did not know the location of the Lost City, her sister cities could know the location. It was determined that the journey would be most auspicious if Aang followed his own journey of learning the elements and the Avatar cycle and so Master Pakku told him and Katara to prepare to leave for the City of the Sea the next day. Master Pakku had determined that it was time to pass on the secret to his best student, not to mention his granddaughter.

The City of the Sea is located at the equator, inside an underwater cave, encased in walls of ice. Due to the cave, access to the city requires an underwater traverse of several miles and great strength of the bender, as well as enough knowledge to avoid running out of breathable air. When they finally reached the city Aang found he was oddly enough a second class citizen, despite his ability to water bend. Katara was continuously indignant on his behalf, and yet she was meeting for the first time female water benders her age who had not been limited in their learning as she had found in the Northern Water Tribe. Aang did manage to befriend one Sea Tribe boy, whose grandfather gifted him with a third of a map sent out by a faction of the White Lotus over a century before when they believed the Air Nation to be under threat. In fact, the old man himself had been the one to bring it and had remained in the city ever since, guarding it carefully. Even more carefully after the supply men had informed him of the tragedy above over a century ago. He also very helpfully gave Aang the name of his earthbending and firebending counterparts in the hopes that Aang would find them and the Lost City. Satisfied Aang was ready to go, but Katara insisted on remaining and so they separated for the first time since she had found him in the ice.

On the surface, Aang once more reunited with his old friend Bumi and unsurprisingly Toph, who had stubbornly insisted on going to the city once she had been informed of the plan (not that Bumi expected anything less). Unlike the City of the Sea, the City of Stone took days to reach, requiring strength and endurance as the trio tunneled deep into the earth passing through a variety of layers of stone. Even Toph was tired by the time they reached the city, though not quite as tired as Aang who slept for over an entire day once they got there. Aang was pleased to find that he was much more respected in the City of Stone than he had been in the City of the Sea, but eventually realized it was because of how much respect everyone had for Toph. Even the City of Stone had never seen a metalbender and so she was held in the highest regard. Aang very quickly found the second piece of the map with its messenger's descendants, but was delayed by the sudden declining health of Bumi.

Bumi had known that this journey was to be his last, but he was at peace and glad to have been able to see his good friend Aang one last time. Aang managed to get through the funeral several days later before Toph found him one-night crying. She was a great comfort to him as a reminder that he still had his friends in the present even as Bumi's death represented the loss of everyone he had known before the iceberg. For the first time, he felt truly free of the expectations of others and was able to center himself. Finally, with great reluctance Aang and Toph returned from the City of Stone. Aang found on the return that he had a renewed strength, resulting in only sleeping away half the day on the surface. Toph found a renewed strength as well and after their meeting with the White Lotus she returned home to her parents for the first time since she left over a year before.

The City of Light was perhaps the most surprising of the three cities for Aang. As he and Iroh were traveling he realized that he had in fact been where they were before, when he and Zuko had met the dragons. Iroh of course laughed and retold his tale of meeting the dragons. After joining the White Lotus Iroh had returned to the Sun Warriors and he had been informed of the city that hid beneath the dwellings of the Sun Warriors who guarded it. The knowledge of the location had died out when the last White Lotus firebender had not found an apprentice free from the brainwashing of the war mongering Fire Nation. What better place for them to keep the dragons than above the very city which represented firebending in its purest form. The city he explained is called the City of Light, because it is surrounded by a pit that has been aflame since before the foundation of the city, and this provides all the light for the city. It also requires great concentration to traverse in order to reach the city without being burned in the process.

Aang was amazed to find the firebenders in the City of Light to be as even keeled as Iroh, lacking the anger that seemed to drive many of the benders he had encountered in the Fire Nation. Unfortunately, in the City of Light he found that unlike in the previous two cities the messenger who had brought the piece of the map had not remained in the city. The messenger was neither still there like his waterbending counterpart nor did he have any descendants to be in possession of the map like his earthbending counterpart. Even worse a young firebender had mistakenly set the library on fire a couple of decades ago, which is where the elders thought the map piece most likely to be. As he struggled to find what had happened to the map piece Aang became increasingly frustrated. It was finally at his breaking point that Aang went and stood at the Pit of Light staring at the edges of the flames. Here he decided to meditate and just as he closed his eyes he for the first time he truly used his seismic sense and noticed a hole in the ground, in which was the final piece of the map. The next morning, he and Iroh returned and although Iroh wanted to stay and speak with the dragons, Aang could not wait to go to the City in the Sky.

It took Aang and Appa many days to reach the heights required to get to the city, as Aang fortunately remembered his training on the dangers of climbing too high too quickly. At the sight of gliders Aang immediately joined in their flight, his blue glider standing out in a sea of orange. It was here that Aang flew a pattern that he had not flown in a long time; a pattern of flight often done when welcoming new monks to the temple. When he landed the elders had already gathered at the edge of the cliff, both male and female alike. Aang bowed before them and it was in that moment that he knew he had found his people.

The End

Author's Note: So I had tried to write this story idea as a chapter fic back on Nick .com years ago before Legend of Korra, but I am not a writer at heart and twelve-year-old me was not the best anyways so it was never finished. Instead I wrote the idea as a history expose of sorts, and any errors are my own.