Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar.

Note: Here is a revised version of my second chapter to my version of Book 4: Air because the previous version sucked--a lot more than this version at least. It had a bunch of typos and contradictions. I eliminated the contradictions and added a few scenes. Some parts I didn't change. Sorry for the inconvenience.

So anyway, I had trouble describing the architecture of the Wan Shi Tong Library, but I hope you can recall what it looked like and envision it in your mind.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the story and please read a review! It's a fairly long chapter. By the way, read the notes at the end please.


Book 4: Air

Chapter 1:

The Locket and the Clock

Act 2:

Iroh raised his eyebrow. "You don't know Liang-Shek? Hmm…" He lowered his voice to ask himself, "Did I pronounce it correctly? Long-Shek… Long-Shrek… Lang—" Everybody sat in silence while Uncle tried to recall the enigmatic Avatar's name.

Zuko finally cut in. "Uncle, we get the idea. His name is along the lines of Liang-Shek." He turned to face the Avatar. "Aang, are you sure you don't know anyone by the name of Liang-Shek?"

"Honestly," Aang said, scratching his head, "I don't know anybody in my past life with that name…or a name similar to that."

"Wait…" Katara interrupted, "If Aang doesn't know, and he's the Avatar…then how could you possibly know?"

"Oh, he's real, for sure." Iroh knew that everyone was going to ask how he knew and he answered their unspoken question immediately. "It's a long story of a long time ago…" Iroh began. He turned to Mushi. "Serve all of us some Jasmine tea, will you?" Mushi bowed and headed for the kitchen.

"A long time ago, I was a young lad—in fact around your ages. My father, Azulon, took me to outskirts of the impregnable city of Ba Sing Se on a vacation and told me how that with the Avatar out of the way, the city would soon fall…and that it would likely be my duty to conquer it. However, I was still a naïve teenager then. Heck, I didn't know much about the seriousness of the war yet. I was just a boy on a fieldtrip with my friends: Jeong Jeong, Piandao, Pakku, and Feng. But you know them."

"What?" Aang shouted. "You knew Jeong Jeong, Pakku, and Piandao? They're all masters!"

Iroh realized that Aang still hadn't met the Order of the White Lotus yet. Katara then asked, "Well, it makes sense you know most of them. They're Fire Nation. But what about Pakku? He's a waterbender!"

"Oh," Iroh said. "He's a good friend. I met him at during a scouting of the Northern Water Tribe. Another long story… Let's just say that he was on a journey of redemption with us after loosing the love of his life. But I'll save that one for later. So anyway, we found a legendary library in the Earth Kingdom."

"Wan Shi Tong's Library?" Aang asked.

"Why, yes." Uncle snapped his fingers. "How'd you know? That library's a myth!"

"Well, we ran into a professor and he took us there." Aang further explained.

"So is it looking as grand as always?"

"It sank beneath the desert surface…" Toph abruptly said.

"Completely?" The children nodded. "Oh, that's too bad."

"About the library?" Zuko asked.

"Oh yeah. The library." He began to murmur to himself again. "Well, seeing that you know about it already, I can skip the desert journey part, the being captured by Sandbenders part, and the cactus juice fiasco… Now where does that leave me?" His face finally lit up. "Ah! So my friends and I found this library in the desert. In fact, only a tower of the library was jutting out of the surface of the desert…"

Mushi placed a cup of jasmine tea for each of the teenagers and Iroh.


Scene switches

Flashback begins.

Iroh, Pakku, Jeong Jeong, Piandao and Feng slide down a rope from the opening of the spire.

Feng was leading the group as they slid down a rope. "Hurry up guys, we can't let that darn fox get away with my book!"

One of Wang Shi Tong's foxy knowledge seekers had infiltrated the teenagers' tents earlier and ran off with one of Feng's books.

"Slow down Feng… That book of yours wasn't so important." Iroh shouted down through the chasm. He could hear the echoes.

"What do you mean? It was second edition! I bet that darn fox knew that!" Feng responded. As Iroh and his friends slid down the rope to chase down Feng, they saw many alien symbols carved into the walls. The spire that they entered from turned out to be a tower, and the entrance to a much bigger building below the desert.

When Feng reached the bottom of the rope and looked up, his mouth was agape. "Oh my stars…" He stood on an intersection of two bridges (something like a crossroad), and in all directions were rows and rows of bookshelves. There was a sense of mystery and awe in the atmosphere, created by the blue lamps strewn across the walls of the Library. Then Iroh, Jeong Jeong, Pakku, and Piandao landed next to Feng. They were amazed too. Beneath them was a seemingly bottomless chasm. This was definitely a huge library.

"Look at this endless sea of knowledge…" Feng said. "I could spend an eternity down here reading all of these books." He grabbed his book bag and headed for the nearest bookshelf. Iroh and his friends ran. Before Feng could reach one, however, a huge owl appeared and perched right in front of the five. "And whom may you children be?"

Feng dropped his bag and shivered. "We—we…" He choked on the words and ran behind Iroh. "We were just chasing down one of those foxes…he took my book!"

The fox appeared under the owl's wing. "Those are not foxes. They're my knowledge seekers." The owl grabbed the book in the fox's mouth with his wing. "An Atlas of the World." Then the owl saw the latter part of the title. "Second edition. Impressive."

"But-but it's my book!" Feng protested in a quivering tone. "I need it back!"

"I'm sure we can make a deal. Tell you what, young scholar. If you let me keep this book, I'll let you look around my library."

Upon hearing this offer, Feng smiled. He was an entusiastic student, first in the Fire Nation Academy, never backing down when he had the chance to learn something. "Awesome! Guys let's go take a look." Feng turned and ran off for the bookshelves.

"I see your friend is interested in my library. How about you guys?" He stretched his neck and peered at Iroh and the other children.

"Well, I have always wanted to learn about the niches to tea-making," Iroh said. "Plus, some instructions on the arts of Firebending wouldn't be bad."

"No problem…" The owl smiled. "I have all sorts of books on brewing and bending."

Before Iroh could take a step, however, the owl lifted his wing.

"Uh-uh-uh." The owl shook his head. "The Scholar's Code dictates that in return for your stay, I'll need a book from each of you."

"Can we leave Feng, here?" Jeong Jeong tugged Iroh's sleeve. Though Jeong Jeong was just as bitter as his current self, he seemed to have more humor when he was younger.

"Hey, we came on this field trip together, and we are going to stick together. Besides, I bet they have some cool information on all sorts of stuff we're interested." Iroh responded as he fumbled through Feng's bag and grabbed four books. He handed them to the Owl. The Owl inspected each of the books and nodded. "You are free to visit any rooms inside my Library. Any except for the Chamber of Ancient Arts."

"All right, guys," Iroh cheered. "Let's dig into some books!"


Jeong Jeong and Pakku are sitting in the Hall of Bending, one of the sections in Wan Shi Tong's Library. The Hall of Bending was a very luxurious room. In the middle of the room there was a fountain and several unlit torches surrounding the fountain. The bookshelves were stationed around the fountain in circles. The shelves were first organized by nation. Then ordered by the difficulty of the bending techniques. And finally ordered by last names.

"What does this book on Firebending mean? All it says is breathing, breathing, breathing! Where's the advanced techniques? The Flaming Tongue Whip? The Rocket Boots Lift Off?" He flipped through the pages. "Those are located only in one chapter, while information on breathing and stance take up five!" Jeong Jeong closed the book and looked at the title. "Firebending for the Masters? What a lie." He said in a mocking tone and threw the book down at the floor. It was only until several years later, it seemed that he learned to truly appreciate the values of firebending basics.

"Quiet down, Jeong." Pakku said, raising his palm at Jeong Jeong's face, indicating that he needed silence. "I need to focus my mind, and I need quiet. If I cannot concentrate, I can't ever learn how to turn water into ice." Though he had mastered most of the techniques of water bending, he had difficulty changing liquid phases. He closed his eyes, focusing hard on the water ball that was levitating in front of him. "Besides, don't let that huge Owl know that you're destroying his books. He'll be furious"

"Yeah," Piandao said as he walked into the room and slid a shutter over the entrance. "We're in a library. Don't shout or mess around with the books. Especially these books—they're ancient. They were probably written by some of the greatest geniuses in the world. You know that old proverb? 'With age comes wisdom.'"

Jeong Jeong nodded. "You're probably right." He squatted and readied his position, spreading his legs wide. "Just as the book says. Breathe, Jeong Jeong. Fire comes from the breath. You can do this."

Then, the shutter slammed open. Iroh ran in such a hurry that he was taking deep breaths. Furthermore, he bumped into Piandao and the two fell over. "Guys…" He said excitedly, "You won't believe what I have!" He was smiling uncontrollably.

"Herbal Tea for Dummies?" Jeong Jeong said mockingly. Everyone other than Iroh laughed. Iroh stopped smiling and glared at each. "No, he said. This is much, much more important and special. Look at this!" He took out a piece of paper from his a canister around his belt. He pulled it slowly, for it was old and easily tear-able.

"A piece of paper? That is what you're getting all excited about?" Pakku asked. He dropped his ball of water over his head to make sure he wasn't dreaming of Iroh's insanity.

"Not just any piece of paper, guys. This paper is from the Chamber of the Ancient Arts!"

"Chamber of the Ancient Arts? The only room that the Owl forbid you from entering?" Piandao slapped his forehead. "Why do you always do whatever you are told not do?" He shook his head in disbelief of Iroh's behavior.

"What? You would have left it there? This is the Owl's prized-possession paper!" Iroh exclaimed.

Pakku gently snatched the paper from Iroh's hand. "It doesn't seem so special to me. Heck, this thing only has four dots on it!" The four dots weren't even in array.

"Yes, that's all it has," Iroh conceded. "But the markings was made by one of the most powerful Avatar in the world—Avatar Liang-Shek!"

"The Avatar Liang-Shek?" The three other children said amazed. "The only being to have mastered all four elements and spirit-bending?" They had all heard of the myths regarding Avatar Liang-Shek. No one knew much of Liang-Shek's life, but they all knew that he had learned the arcane art of bending one's energy.

"That room, the Chamber of Ancient Arts," Iroh continued, "Apparently was the room in which Liang-Shek found out how to control energy as a form of bending! Look, here's solid proof." He placed two books down into the middle between the four of them. One was a journal of a previous Avatar's journey into the Spirit World, while the other was a book titled, Bending Origins: Energy Channeling.

Though the books supported Iroh's argument, Jeong Jeong still wasn't convinced of Iroh's claims. "Sure, those books might have information on the ancient arts…but who is to say Liang-Shek learned them here."

"Because the Owl told me." Iroh curtly retored. It was as simple as that.

"He told you? What? He forbid you from going into that room! Why would he tell you?"

"Nothing that a book or two couldn't buy. Heck, I gave him three and he even showed me the Chamber of the Secret Arts." He sat cross-legged and shot flames into several of the torches surrounding the fountain. His friends sat down around the torch. "The Owl told me how a previous Avatar by the name of Liang-Shek had come into the Library to study bending. He was already a master of all four elements then, but he had come to learn more. He camped for several weeks in the library, reading through the many books in the various shelves. He finally, though, found what he was searching for: The Chamber of the Secret Arts. He stayed there for another week before razing the entire room and fleeing the Library with some of the books on Spirit-Bending. The two books I found were only part of a few that survived the fire."

"What?" Paindao was shocked. "That's crazy! Why would he destroy books in this library? They're treasures of knowledge. I bet they're worth even more than jewels!"

"Because… he probably made an amazing discovery that he dared not to share with anyone." Iroh said, solemnly. The other three were both intrigued and creeped. Iroh continued his story. "And you know about the Scholar's code that the Owl was talking about? Apparently it was started by Liang-Shek. Before he left the Library, he threw this parchment," He held the paper with four dots out. "And shouted to the Owl: 'Keep this paper, Wan Shi Tong, it has the most precious and important knowledge on it of all of history!'"

"So," Pakku said, scratching his chin. "This paper might help us learn about Avatar Liang-Shek's life and the secret to understanding energy-bending?"

"Of course," Iroh said as he stood up. "We're on this field trip to learn about bending and we come upon this library of infinite resources. Should we just leave all of this information to waste?" The other three shrugged and nodded weakly. Though they hated to admit it, Iroh did have a point.

"So what do you guys think?" Iroh asked.

Before any response could be made, they heard the owl's loud groan. He squawked loudly and each knew why he was mad. The Owl had discovered that Iroh tampered with the contents in the prohibited area.

"Darn it." Iroh said, kneeling down to pick up some of Piandao's books on sword fighting. "Pick up your books—any books that you deem important. We better scram…"

"Iroh, why'd you have to do this?" Piandao groaned and grabbed his sword, which lay beside the fountain They all ran out of the room and into the main chamber of the entire library.

Feng was just outside the room holding a pile of books in his arms. "Hey guys, look at all the information I found on the celestial bodies! The lunar eclipse, the solar eclipse, the comet..." Jeong Jeong grabbed Feng's arm. "Less talking… more running! An angry owl is after us!" Jeong Jeong's sudden pull caused Feng to spill most of his books.

"An angry owl? What did you do now, Iroh?" Feng asked. He seemed to know the prankster fairly well. The Owl was at the other end of the Library. He spread his wings and flew across the huge chasm in between and landed right behind Feng. He stretched his neck and reached to grab Feng with his beak. "Drop those books, you double-crossing… You little…You're no better than that Avatar…"

"Avatar?" Feng asked surprised. He didn't know someone else had made a visit to the library other than him. "He's not talking about the Last Airbender, is he?"

Jeong Jeong let go of Feng and shouted, "Be quiet and keep running." He turned, took a deep breath, and shot a spray of fire in the Owl's direction. The Owl stopped swung his neck in a firebending fashion and negated Jeong Jeong's attack.

The Owl hollered menacingly, "It's no use to run. You can't escape. I've studied all of the bendings." Jeong Jeong, upon realizing that he couldn't hold the owl off, turned and ran after his friends. They ran into another room in the Library. Iroh shoved a bookcase over the entrance of the door.

"This isn't going to hold the Owl off at all!" Jeong Jeong complained, managing to slip through right before the bookcase blocked the entire opening.

"Stop panicking, Jeong," Pakku said. "We can handle this. All we need to do is fasten the bookcase tighter into the entrance." He closed his eyes and focused his mind. Opening his water bag pouch, he released a jet of water and shot it at the bookshelf and froze it.

"Not bad, Pakku," Iroh said. He scanned the room for an exit, but all there were were bookshelves. "Now how do we get out?" Iroh scratched his head. He could hear the Owl banging on the bookcase blocking the door.

Then, the ceiling into the room broke open. From there fell a man in his mid-to-late fourties. His hair was red, spiky, and irregular, and his eyes were unevenly sized. In fact, one of them was twitching. He was also missing a tooth. Every feature in his face seemed to demonstrate signs of a crazy genius. He turned to the children. "Have you guys seen a man with an arrow on his head?"

Iroh turned, amazed. "Wait… the Avatar… he's still alive?"

Bumi sniggered and snorted. "Well, have you seen him around here? I've searched all across the world, and I think this definitely must be place where he is hiding."

"Why should we tell you? We don't even know—" Jeong Jeong was cut off by Piandao, who blocked his mouth.

"Stop being so stubborn, Jeong. Think outside the box. We're stuck in a Library under the desert. He's an earthbender. He's our way out." He turned to face Bumi. "Let's have a compromise. You get us out of the Library, we'll tell you everything we know about the Avatar." Piandao was immediately interrupted by his friends.

"He's our worst enemy!" Iroh shouted. "Well, at least he should be…to us…" He was referring to himself, Piandao, Jeong Jeong, and Feng, all members of the Fire Nation. Obviously, he did not hate the other three--technically two--nations like his teachers instructed him to.

"And besides," Pakku whispered. "Like what Jeong was about to say, we know nothing about the current Avatar or his location."

"No we don't," Piandao admitted. "But we have this." He grabbed the journal of a previous Avatar's journal into the Spirit World. "If we can find a way into the Spirit World, the Realm of the Avatar and the spirits, we can learn more." He turned to Bumi. "So, what do you think about it? We'll give you all our information."

Bumi was in the middle of smelling her fingertips. Then he realized Piandao directed the question to him. He snorted again. "I would have helped you anyway… but sure!"

He summoned a staircase out made out of earth and they all ascended out of the hole that Bumi made. The owl broke the bookcase and ran into the room. When he noticed that they had escaped from the room already, he pulled his head out and turned to face the highest floor. There, on the intersection (or crossroads) of the two bridges he saw all of the children climbing a rope.

The Owl, knowing that he didn't have much time left, squawked again. Hearing this noise, one of his knowledge seekers appeared at the top of the tower and began gnawing the rope.

"Faster, or the rope will snap!" Iroh commanded. Even though he was highest on the rope, not even he could get out before the rope snapped and sent all of the children landing on the bridge. The rubbed their sore rumps. Then, they saw the Owl approaching them, flapping his wings madly.

"If I had learned the Rocket Boots lift off," Jeong Jeong complained, rubbing his temples, "I could have just blasted my way out!"

Pakku turned to Bumi. "Can you Earthbend us out of here?"

"Hmm…" Bumi thought. "Give me some time." He began to bend earth underneath where they were all standing.

Iroh got up and turned to Jeong Jeong. "Jeong, it's time we do it."

Jeong Jeong's eyes widened. "Wait… You don't mean the Disappearing Dragon? We've never mastered it individually! And this is such a huge group to do it with! We'll get roasted if we try!"

"It's our only shot. We'll be that owl's dinner if we don't!" Iroh shouted back.

Jeong Jeong nodded. "According to the book, we need to take deep breaths and match the rhythm of our breathing. It'll magnify the strength of our flames"

Iroh nodded in return. They both squatted and began breathing deeply. The Owl got closer and closer and stretched his neck to bite one of the children. But before he could get a bite, huge flames burst out from Iroh and Jeong Jeong's arms. The Owl backed off and flew in another direction to find another opening for attack. Iroh and Jeong Jeong then swirled their arms around like a waterbender, circulating their flames as if the fire were mini-comets and they, the benders, were the two foci in the ellipse. The flames spinning around the group protected them, and Iroh and Jeong Jeong summoned more flames. Eventually, they gathered enough flames and formed a huge sphere of fire around themselves and the group.

"What? What's going on? What is this?" The Owl was in disbelief. He had never learned of this Fire Bending maneuver. "How are you keeping so much fire alive all at once?"

"You can't learn everything form the books!" Iroh shouted through the globe of fire. The sphere started out huge, but with every passing second, it shrank. The Owl chuckled, knowing that it would only be a matter of time before the shield of fire wore off. However, when the flames finally disappeared, had everybody inside the sphere had gone. They were nowhere to be seen.

The Owl turned and searched the entire Library, but soon remembered his readings on mirages and realized that he had been fooled. Turning back to where the sphere had been, he saw that the group was all there when the effect of the Disappearing Dragon wore off. They hadn't escaped or vanished at all! Bumi, by then, had created a huge mass of earth below them and then pushed the mass upwards, causing a small pillar to erupt from the ground where they were standing to send the entire group flying out of the tower and out of the Library.


Flashback Ends

Back at the teashop...

"We became friends with that crazy Earthbender ever since he saved us. However, we knew that each of our goals were different. Bumi was in search of the Avatar. I, Jeong Jeong, Piandao, and Feng were tied to a Nation driven in world conquest. Honestly, I think none of us were interested in dominating the world. Pakku… well, who knew what he had in mind. We decided that the only way we could stay together would be to form a club. This club, the White Lotus, eventually became the Order of the White Lotus."

"I knew it!" Sokka exclaimed. "We weren't the only ones to double-cross Wan Shi Tong! You guys and that other Avatar did it too!"

"Wait..." Aang said. "The Disappearing Dragon… I saw that maneuver before. He turned to Katara. "Didn't Jeong Jeong use it to wrap himself into flames and disappear from Zhao?"

"Why, yeah, that maneuver he did was Disappearing Dragon. It was just done a lot faster." Katara said.

"How come the Owl never learned that Fire Bending technique?" Zuko asked. "Not even I've ever heard of it."

"That's because…" Iroh said smugly and crossed his arms. "I made it up."

"What?" Zuko shouted angrily. "Don't tell me you made up the entire story! What a waste of time!"

"No the story and everything that happened is true. What was made-up was that maneuver. Jeong Jeong and I conceived it. It's sort of like the lightning redirection technique, I taught you, nephew."

Everyone was relieved that Iroh's story was true. "We conceived that move after studying the arts of waterbending from Pakku. We learned that Fire, more than any other element, is hard to handle. It is very volatile and can be very dangerous if mishandled. Furthermore, it needs fuel to run. By spinning it in a circle, we exposed it to more oxygen than usual to keep the flames alive."

Aang then remembered Jeong Jeong's speech on fire's insatiable hunger to devour land. "Though we could easily shoot flames out from our hands, it needs to flow in order to be kept, and that's what we learned from the waterbenders. As long as we continued swinging the flames around us and creating more, we generated a shell—a huge sphere of flames, to be precise."

"How about your disappearance, though?" Sokka asked.

"Now, our disappearing act also comes from waterbending. I noticed, as Pakku practiced, that water can bend light or vision. When he dragged a huge blob of water around him, his face and body were all distorted. From my point of view at least. Using this as our source of inspiration, Jeong Jeong and I decided to use the sphere, or the Dragon as we called it, as cover. We then changed the density of air around us to bend light, and in turn, vision around our bodies. Therefore, we created a temporary mirage, escaping the Owl. Hence the name, the Disappearing Dragon."

"Amazing!" Sokka shouted. He had to admit that Uncle Iroh was resourceful.

"It is. It was the special bonds and connection of the four elements and nations that taught us these amazing tricks. That's why we decided to stick together and remain in contact even after our adventure."

"Wow…" Aang said. "That was quite an adventure. Who knew that young Jeong Jeong was such a hothead?"

"Or the fact that Pakku had trouble learning how to turn water into ice." Katara followed up.

"Every master has to take his first step," Iroh said as he drank some of the jasmine tea.

"Well, we all know one thing, though…Piandao was the best!" Sokka bursted. "He convinced Bumi to send them right out."

"Well, Bumi would have done it anyway…" Toph leaned back on her chair. "Meaning that Bumi was the one who saved them all. Earthbending is the best!"

The gang then all got into a heated discussion on which one of their masters was the best. Iroh was dumbfounded. "Hey, the point of the story was to enlighten you all on Avatar Liang-Shek! It wasn't for you guys to argue which one of us was the greatest…though I would appreciate a nomination for me…"

During the intense debate, no one knew that Aang had left the group.


Scene switches

Aang is sitting outside of the teashop with legs crossed, meditating. He is communicating with the Spirit World, calling on his past lives.

"This is great news, Aang!" Katara said when she saw Aang outside the door. She was the first one to notice his disappearance, and she snuck out of the room. "If you managed to use Spirit Bending to remove Firelord Ozai's bending capabilities…you can use Spirit Bending to bring back Airbending to the world!"

Aang opened his eyes and relaxed his position. He recalled the words of the giant lion turtle he met before the final battle with Ozai and shook his head. "It's not that easy, Katara. Sure, I can bend energy to revoke one of his bending abilities, but I can't bend energy to grant one bending abilities. I'll be corrupted by his spirit and destroyed in the process."

"I know that, Aang." Katara said. She sat down right next to him on the steps and grabbed his shoulders, trying to convince him to listen. "But we now know a master of Spirit Bending: Avatar Liang-Shek. And what's even more amazing is," She pointed her finger at Aang's chest. "He's one of your past lives. He's within you!"

Aang shook his head disappointingly and spoke softly, "No… Katara. While you guys were talking, I looked inside myself and searched my past lives… and he isn't within me."

Katara's eyes widened in disbelief.

Fades to black.


Note: I think that this Order of the White Lotus story is still in canon. After all, its origin hasn't been revealed yet.

I purposely portrayed Jeong Jeong has a fairly short-tempered boy because I wanted to demonstrate the changes during all the years. Iroh was quite a prankster when he was young because he hasn't learned about the importance of the spirits yet. And though I hint on Iroh's famous Journey into the Spirit World with the Spirit World journal of XX Avatar, I will not be addressing that issue in my story. Nor the story of Zuko's mother for that matter. Sorry.

I hope you enjoyed the story, and once again, reviews are welcome!