Cycles
By
AnimeFan101
Disclaimer: Avatar is not mine, never has been. Never will be either; you know how much these things are worth?
Author's Note: was just about to go to sleep, when a few bits of information percolated into something blinding. This flew to my muse's fingers, and I shortly found myself at the keyboard. Here goes.
0o0o0o0
Aang looked over the Southern Temple he'd been raised in. In the year since Sozin's Comet had passed, and Aang had become a fully realized Avatar, a lot had been done. The Eastern and Western Temples were still empty, and the Northern Temple contingent had only just recently returned there, but the Southern Temple was very nearly the image it had been a hundred years ago, when he was first teaching his agemates the Air Scooter.
Earth whispered against his feet. Aang smiled and turned, greeting his friends as they trooped out onto the balcony and joined him. Noticing a few absences, Aang tilted his head at Zuko and Sokka. The two men shrugged nearly in unison.
"Mai and Suki stayed below to keep the other Kiyoshi Warriors occupied," Zuko said calmly. "Besides, I kinda got the impression when you breezed along earlier that whatever you had to say was not for general gossip. And Ty Lee is the biggest mouth in all the lands."
Aang nodded, and twitched his fingers in a quick pattern. Chairs earthbent themselves from the balcony stones. Toph smirked. "Someone's been talking with the Old Muscle," she snarked, referring to Aang's childhood friend King Bumi. "He show you that trick?"
Aang shook his head as they sat down. "A remnant of Kiyoshi's ability actually." He let his gaze circle around. Directly to his left was Sokka, moving round the circle after was Katara, Toph, and finally Zuko on Aang's right. Aang spared a moment's amusement on the pattern before steadying himself. Seriously now, he let solemn eyes wander over them as he spoke.
"I've heard some gossip on the winds these last few months as the final repairs and alterations were made. A lot of people seem concerned about the Avatar cycle, as I'm the only known Airbender. I need all of you to help me spread the word: there will be no problem. The cycle is unbroken and will continue to be so."
"Uh, Aang," Sokka interjected. "Not to burst your bubble or anything, but that's the exact point. There are no other Airbenders, and you have to die to let the next Avatar be born. Without a teacher, that will break the cycle."
Nodding heads indicated the others' agreement. Aang shook his head. "No it won't. I'll have a lot of time to make this happen." His eyes settled on Katara. "And my wife will need to understand."
Katara blinked hard. "I'm a Waterbender, Aang. Shifting with the motion is what I do."
Aang shook his head. "This will be a lot of shifting, Katara. Because you won't be my only wife."
"Polygamy?" Toph blurted. "You gone all Foggy Bottom on us, Twinkletoes, 'cause I hear they're the only group that don't keep to a one-man-one-woman deal."
Aang shook his head. "Katara will be my wife. And when she dies... I'll marry again."
"A little farsighted, aren't you?" Zuko challenged. "Planning for what will happen after her death? Will you even be able to still walk then, being over a hundred already yourself?"
Sokka stifled a chortle at Zuko's poor joke, but nodded his agreement. "A little long in the tooth yourself, won't you be?"
Aang sighed, stood, and moved to kneel in front of Katara. The Water Master's eyes were wide, confused, and tears threatened to fall. Aang let the love he felt shine through his own eyes, and saw her steady somewhat.
"We need to understand, Aang. Please, what do you mean?" Katara asked.
Aang twisted to look at Zuko. "What was the year of my... Roku's death?"
Everyone blinked at the question. Zuko thought a moment. "Sozin's Comet and the beginning of the war started a new dating system in the Fire Nation. This is year 102 After Sozin's Comet, which puts Avatar Roku's death at 12 years before. So, 12 BSC. Why?"
Aang nodded. "What was his birth year?"
"About 82 BSC, making him just about seventy years old at his death."
"Which puts my death as Kiyoshi at the same year. So, about 183 years ago, Kiyoshi died."
Sokka jerked so hard in surprise that he nearly tumbled off his chair. Eyes wide, he stared at Aang like he'd never seen him before. Toph turned her blank eyes toward him. "Snoozles, what's got you all gravely?"
Sokka stared at Aang, fixated on the kneeling Avatar. "I didn't put it together before. Why not? How could anyone miss that, come to think of it?"
Aang shrugged. "I don't know. It's just something that seems to be forgotten quickly from generation to generation from what I can tell."
Katara flipped a hand, splashing her brother from her water pouch. "What gets forgotten?"
Sokka turned to her, eyes more serious than Katara had ever seen on her brother. "When was Kiyoshi Island separated from the mainland?"
"Uh, three hundred seventy years ago..." Katara's voice trailed off as the math ran through her head. Everyone's eyes rotated back to where Aang sat.
The Avatar nodded. "In 258 BSC, I as Kiyoshi separated the Island from the mainland. I as Kiyoshi was born, however, in 312 BSC... making me fifty-four years old when I killed Chin, and puts my death at close to two-hundred thirty years of age."
Aang let that sink in. "Kuruk was my name before that, and I was born to the Water Tribe. I died in 312 BSC... but somewhere between 800 and 700 years BSC, Kuruk was a fully realized Avatar... trying his hardest to kill Koh the Face Stealer for taking the woman he was about to marry."
Zuko made it first. "A fully realized Avatar... even at the low end, he would have been well over four hundred at the time of his death."
Aang shook his head. "Likely even more than that; by the time I met Ummi, I'd already traveled the world for a long time. I as Kuruk also wasn't too... serious an Avatar. That's why Ummi was taken; it was a punishment allowed by the Spirit World for my failure to do anything but surf the oceans and have strength contests with the Earthbenders. My best guess -- and it's a guess because Kuruk was never too concerned with time before Ummi's abduction -- puts Kuruk's age at death at more than six hundred years."
"He would have been born a thousand years ago," Toph murmured in awe.
"That's not the end of it, is it Aang?" Sokka cut in.
Katara, Toph, and Zuko gave him incredulous looks. Katara spoke for all three. "What, that's not enough?"
"No, it's not the end of it, Sokka," Aang said, reaching out and holding onto Katara's hand.
"An Avatar born of Fire has a short, brilliant life; I am a hot flame, and I burn out swiftly. When born of Earth, I am more enduring, but Water and Wind wear Earth down much swifter than you might think, so I don't live too much longer. Water gives me a long life, as it moves, adapts, and flows far easier than either Earth or Fire."
"And the Avatar who is born of Air?" Zuko asked in a nearly breathless voice.
Aang's eyes tightened. "My name was Yangchen. She was raised in the Eastern Temple. And there was an old scroll she read one day, that left such a strong impression in her mind that it resounded in her spirit from then on. And thus, in my spirit."
"Aang?" Tears flowed freely down Katara's face. "What are you telling me?"
Aang took a deep breath. "The Cycle of the Avatar is a round; there is always an order to it: Water, then Earth, Fire, and Air. It's rare for an Avatar to die earlier than they could reach. Even as Fire, Roku should have lived another twenty or thirty years, but accidents do happen. When they do not...
"The Cycle is a round, nearly constant and tied to the Sun, the source of all life. A little more than two thousand years, by our reckoning, passes between the birth of one Avatar of Air and my next life as Air. Yangchen was likely well past a thousand years of age prior to her death. And, as I was then, I am now of Air."
End
Author's endnotes: *whew* Glad I got that out. It's something that's bugged me ever since two interviews crossed in my mind: Kiyoshi being labeled as the oldest Avatar at 230, and then Kuruk being revealed as the Avatar Koh mentioned in season 1 episode 20 as having tried to kill him eight or nine hundred years ago (Koh's exact words; I checked). With Kuruk being Kiyoshi's immediate predecessor and the succeeding Avatar being born a week or less after the death of the predecessor, even with the most pessimistic length of eight hundred years, that still puts Kuruk trying to kill Koh in 700 BSC... just shy of being 400 years before Kiyoshi's birth. Since Kuruk was full-grown, fully trained, and had been Avatar for clearly some time before meeting Ummi and losing her to Koh, this puts his lifespan at a minimum in my mind of 450 years, edging up nearly twice as long as Kiyoshi. With Roku dead in less than a century (accidental, but still), Kiyoshi at over twice that and Kuruk a minimum twice Kiyoshi's age... this bunny jack-hammered its way out of my head.
I nearly started lining out the reason for the Sun being tied into this when I decided there was enough Infodump there to choke David Weber. So I cut it out.
So, here's my solution to Aang being the last Airbender. A guy can father a lot of kids if he lives a thousand years, you know. Geometric progression people, geometric progression.