Aang woke up in an unfamiliar bed, looked around, saw a Fire Nation banner on the wall and panicked.
"oh good you're finally awake"
Looking in the opposite direction ha saw Katara with a tray of healing herbs and water.
"Katara! What happened did we get captured?" he asked.
"No, we're on a ship that dad captured, you've been asleep for a weeks" she said as she sat down next to him and began checking him.
"Weeks?!"
He brought his hand to his head and was surprised. "I have hair?"
She explained everything that had happened while she was healing him. When she finished she gathered all the supplies and used bandages. "Get some rest I'll be back with some soup" and then she left the room.
Fifteen minutes later Katara entered the room with a bowl of vegetable stew.
"Aang?" she said as looked about the empty room. "AANG!" she panicked a bit and searched the entire room, Sokka and Toph entered.
"What are you two doing here"
"Toph grabbed me and said Aang just disappeared!"
"Disappeared? How?!"
"I don't know, one second I could feel him through the ship and the next he was gone!"
Sokka for some reason picked up a pair of underwear next to the bed. "Was he naked?'
"It was easier to clean him that way!" shouted Katara, "his cloths and glider are still here, he couldn't have gotten too far."
The whole ship was searched and nothing was found, Appa was brought on top deck to begin an aerial search.
"It's not safe, you'll get lost in the storm" Hadokka yelled over the storm.
"We need to find him"
A loud sound unlike anything they had ever heard brought their attention to the bow of the ship. Floating in front of them was a large thing, bigger that Appa, composed of tentacles and greenish eyes. Below the thing was a figure as tall as Sokka, wearing a dark hood and heavy looking clothing. The hooded figure raised his right arm, reaching into the storm. The storm responded with a massive lightning bolt to the outstretched hand, the thunderous blast of air from it blew the hood back revealing a familiar face and tattoo. The lightning was held in Aang's hand recharging his powers, causing him to go into the avatar state, he lowered arm, the last of the bolt still clutched in his fist. To everyone's surprise Aang spun around on the spot punching his lightning charged fist at the impossible creature, releasing a bigger blast of lightning that struck the ball of eyeballs and tentacles dead center. Then it spoke.
"A good effort but still futile"
"YOU FUCKING JERK! DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU'VE PUT ME THROUGH?!"
"Yes, I was watching you the whole time. You fulfilled your end of our bargain perfectly."
"Because of you I can no longer call myself an Air Nomad! I have broken every single rule and custom that my people had! I will never be able to achieve spiritual enlightenment because of all the blood on my hands!"
"You are the last of your people, who will judge you, you will condemn you? Pacifists and Isolationists are always the target of a more powerful group in every realm, your people were both. As for your spiritual enlightenment, which by your people's definition was becoming one with the universe and knowing everything, I already do that and there are still things that puzzle me and compel me to learn more. You would have better luck teaching a cat to read than truly achieving enlightenment. I have fulfilled my end of our bargain. Goodbye Aang"
"Never darken our world with your presence again!"
"No promises"
The monster then shrunk out of existence. Aang turned around and was met by the stunned faces of his friends. "Uh hey, how long was I gone?"
"About thirty minutes" said Toph breaking the silence.
"Aang where were aahh" Katara was interrupted by sheets of rain from the storm.
"Let me fix that" Aang said as looked up into the sky "Lok Vah Koor" a bluish ring energy went up, the rain ended in six seconds and the skies parted to reveal the stars six seconds after that.
"Let's go inside and dry off, I haven't had good meal in days" walking over to Appa he got a big lick from his sky-bison "missed you big buddy, walking sucks" and went below deck.
"Did he just yell a storm away?" Sokka asked.
After Appa was below deck again and fed, the Gaang (everyone calls them that) went to the ship's galley and saw that Aang had already gotten himself some food.
"Your face!" yelped Katara once she saw him in the light.
"Yeah, these aren't even worst ones" Aang had three scars on face, a short one on his cheek, a long one that ran straight down from above his right eyebrow to his right cheek that skipped his eye, another long one on the right side of his head and a nick on top of the right ear.
"How?" she said, her eyes tearing up.
Pointing to his eye Aang said with a mouthful of food "Ax" then pointing to the side of head "Arrow", he pointed to his other cheek and said "I don't know how I got this one".
"You're eating meat!" shouted Sokka as Katara mumbled a repeat of Aang's late statement.
"Yeah I was never given the option to try meat to see if I would like it or not" replied Aang, then popped another piece of fried chicken-weasel in his mouth "it's delicious".
"Okay how did you get so big and what is your armor made of? It's unlike anything I've ever felt." Toph blurted out.
"I was on another world call Nirn for about two years and my armor is made of dragon scales that I got from killing thirty seven dragons including one that wanted to destroy the world."
Toph's eyes went wide and said blankly "You are not lying and I can no longer call you twinkle-toes out of respect."
Sokka looked over to Toph and said "You alright?"
Toph shook her head and said "yeah, it's just a lot to take in"
"Aang. Start from the beginning. I left the room to get some soup, what happened?"
Katara had just left the room and shut the door. Aang hung his head low and stared at the bedsheets not noticing a mass of black tentacles appearing from nowhere, the mass increased in size to about seven feet in diameter in seconds, additional tentacles flowed from the mass and enveloped the area around him, leaving only a single light above Aang, thousands of eyes opened all at once and gazed at him. It waited two minutes for boy to stop sulking before giving him a light shove.
"AAAAAAHHHH! What are you?!"
"Greetings young one, I am Hermaeus Mora and I would like to help you."
"KATARA! TOPH! HELP!
"They cannot hear you, I do not wish it."
"What do you want?"
"As I said I would like to help you."
"What sort of help?"
"Information, I know many things and share them with others, unlike a certain owl."
"What kind of things?"
"The Fire Nation has secret bunkers under all of their most important facilities including their capital to protect themselves during an eclipse of the sun."
"How? There was no way for them to build that many so fast!"
"I said 'an eclipse' meaning any, they have known about this long before your war started. The scrap of paper Sokka found stated that it was 'darkest day in Fire Nation history'."
THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP
"Sokka you're interrupting Aang's story and shaking the table" Katara pulled his head back by his ponytail. "Go on"
"They know the dates of the eclipse for the next 300 years and are well prepared for them."
"Sokka's gonna love this."
"Now that I have offered this information, I require a service from you."
"Why should I help you now that you told me about the Fire Nation's secret?"
"Because I can blank your mind if you refuse, our entire conversation won't even be a memory and your friends will walk into a Fire Nation trap."
"Oh, what do you need?"
"A book of mine has been stolen, retrieve it for me."
"A book? Why can't you get it?"
"It is no mere book child, that owl would trade me his whole worthless library for it. Both it and the thief who stole it are hidden to me. You are a hero, a thread of destiny is wrapped around you. You will succeed."
"What's the name of the book?"
"It is called the 'Black Book: Waking Dreams' are you accepting my offer?"
"Yes just let me get..." the tentacle walls closed around Aang and vanish along with him. Hermaeus Mora shrank to nothing a second before Katara entered the room. "Aang?"