Rebirth
Sorry about the wait, I've been frightfully busy. Two things, this chapter is longer upon request. And some of my friends have asked me why I decided to write this. A, because the avatar connection should never have been broken, B, Aang deserves to know the airbenders come back, and C, we all know that we'll always love the boy in the iceberg, or I guess in this case the forty year old man in the iceberg. Enjoy!
Aang sat at the table in air temple with his family, and Korra and her friends, still not quite used to being alive again. From talking with Korra and his granddaughter Jinora they had mostly figured out what happened. Somehow when Vaatu was attacking Raava and the avatar spirit cycle was being broken, when Korra had reached out for them she had unknowingly held on to a part of Aang. When Korra got Raava back they must have pulled him back as well, the only version of him Korra knew. So he had woken back where he began, only this time he was stronger and it didn't take Katara's water bending to free him.
But he still wasn't sure if he liked being alive. There were good things; seeing his grandchildren race around on air scooters and playing air ball, bringing back the connection to the other Avatars, and seeing all his family again. There were bad things though also; his age being offset from what he naturally felt that it should have been the fear that he would outlive Katara, and a feeling of displacement. The world had moved on from his time, and now he just felt….out of place. People everywhere were so excited, but they didn't realize what both Korra and Aang were feeling. Having two Avatar wasn't bad just…odd. They could feel it in the fabric of the world. It was a change, a shift in the world that would take time to get used to, just like the spirits.
His sons began to bicker again at the table, snapping him to the present.
"I did do it!" Bumi objected.
"What?" Aang said, confused.
Tenzin looked over at him. Seeing another person with an airbender tattoo, a real one, still made him inwardly smile. "Bumi is under the impression that he can somehow air bend now." Bumi continued to wave his arms around and Tenzin seemed to grow more impatient by the moment. "It's not funny anymore Bumi."
"Maybe I can only air bend when I'm in real danger." He suggested, thoughtfully looking at the peice of paper he had previously been trying to bend.
Aang couldn't resist smiling a little bit, despite the subject at hand. "Bumi, as much as I would love for you to be an airbender, you did not inherit the ability to air bend."
That was when his darling grandson Meelo decided to take matter into his own hands and threw a plate at Bumi. Aang's gape was the largest of all as his son caught the plate in the air with airbending, something that could have been impossible. Something was impossible.
Several hours Aang sat on the grass staring out at sea, deep in thought. Memories flashed through his head like the wind, bringing joy and sadness all at the same time. It was incredible, the new airbenders. His grief for his people still burned, as it always had and always would, but something in him was healing. There were new airbenders appearing, new airbenders. There hadn't been other airbenders in a long time. A really long time, but now, they were.
He could feel tears running down the corners of his eyes, but they were not in sadness. Aang knew why he had returned. Korra needed help with her training, but she wouldn't be the only one. He would be training a new group of airbenders soon. His people wouldn't go into oblivion. He would pass on what the monks had taught him, he wouldn't let them fade from memory. Gyatso and the other monks, his friends, his family, would be remembered forever.
He had so much he would teach them, so much he wanted to share. The air acolytes wouldn't just become the echoes of his civilization, they could become even more now. They hadn't all bean benders in the temples. Aang looked out further to sea and a sort of day dream come over him.
He remembered what the temples had been like, before, but now he imagined what they would look like now. Sky bison and lemurs, and monks and sisters; their nation reborn, as more than just a small family. His people…weren't going to fade away. The injustice of what Sozin had done would finally be righted, and he could go to sleep knowing his family wouldn't be the last. It was like some great cosmic power had decided that he deserved a treat, and given him something he had wanted for longer than her could remember. There would finally truly be five nations; earth, water, fire, the united republic, and now the air nation.
Someone came up behind him, startling him a little bit. His son Tenzin sat down and they both looked at each other and smiled. Aang looked back out to sea. "Its incredible son, it's like a dream. After 170 years, new airbenders."
"It is incredible." Tenzin said.
The three airbender kids came running over to the two of them. "Dad?" Ikki asked, sitting down on Tenzin's lap. "When a new guy gets airbending does that make him our brother?"
"Well, in way all air nomads are a family Ikki." Aang said, looking out to sea and thinking of how it had been. "One very large family."
"Does that mean I have to share my room? Because I like my personal space." She said.
"Of course not," Tenzin said. "But we might have to get used to being the only airbenders around anymore."
"I hope we have enough for an army," Meelo said, leaving his perch on his father's shoulders. "I want to be a commander like uncle Bumi."
"Air nomads don't have armies Meelo." Jinora said, looking back at Aang.
"No we don't." He said, thinking back to a certain fire nation teacher in a certain fire nation school, when he had been just twelve years old. "But maybe there will be enough to fill the temples again." Aang said, tears coming to eyes again.
"What's wrong grandpa?" Jinora asked.
"Nothing Jinora, everything is as it should be."
Meelo turned around with his goofy grin to face Aang. "Will you be airbender president?"
He chuckled. "No, but I think the new airbenders will need lots of help and guidance to understand what it means to be part of our nation. That's a big responsibly."
"Don't worry," Meelo said, walking over to them. "We'll help you."
"I know."
Aang stood on a bridge with Korra, Lin, and Korra's friend Bolin.
"I hope this works," Korra said. The president walked up with a press conference and a frown. "What are you doing here?"
"I was alerted that you had a new plan to wipe out these noxious weeds. So I thought you'd want everyone to be here to watch."
One of the press conference members raised a pen. "Avatar Aang, are you disappointed in the way that Korra has handled this situation?"
"What? No!"
Another raised his pen. "Avatar Korra, do you think-"
Korra thrust her hand out. "No questions just stand there, silently!" Aang couldn't help it and burst into laughter. "What's with you?" Korra said.
"You're just…a lot like a certain "greatest earth bender of all time" I once knew. Your both very…you know what, never mind."
She frowned but they turned to the task at hand. They both walked up the bridge and closed their eyes. They opened them and for the moment, were connected, to the past and the present. Both avatars began to bend, Korra tendril of water and Aang a tendril of air. The water and air wrapped around the building covered in vines and began to glow golden. The vines receded, all the way down into the water.
Both of them bowed and spoke in unison, leaving the avatar state as they did. "Go in peace."
The press ran up. "How did you know what to do?!" One man asked.
"Will the spirits be leaving for good now?"
"How soon can we expect public water service to resume?" A woman asked, just as the vines shot back out of the water, to climb onto even more buildings collapsing one.
"Lookout!" Korra shouted as she was about to jump into action, but Aang had already begun.
He jumped up into an air spout, going into the avatar state. Aang bent the stone in the building, keeping it upright as Lin and Bolin shot up to support earth pillars.
A voice came in her head, form Aang. "Korra I can't hold it forever, get them out!"
"On it." She replied, before she had even though about it.
Korra blasted the door open with air and began to guide people out, then grabbing her glider and jumping into the air to circle around the outside and rescue more people, just as Aang lost it and the top of the building almost crushed the people below.
He spiraled down and landed next to the others.
"That could have gone better." Bolin remarked.
As the sun began to set Aang walked out to an air pavilion, to sea Tenzin and Korra siting in it, he stopped and listened. "It's scary," Korra said. "I have all this power and all these people depending on me, but I don't know what I'm supposed to be doing half the time."
He continued to stand at the edge of the pavilion. "It can be that way." He sat down next to her. "I know some people believe be and…" He smiled. "Team Avatar, always knew what to do, but we didn't. We were just a bunch of kids, trying to do the impossible. At times it may seem bleak, bu you have to remember what matters."
"What?"
"Wisdom is something that lives within all avatars."
Bolin ran up. "Mako called!" He said as they turned around. "They found the new airbender guy but he ran away to the top of Kyoshi Bridge and won't come down." He winced. "Oh, sorry. Did I interrupt an avatar wisdom session?"
Aang stood up with the other two. "No, were finished."
They landed with Ugi on the bridge several minutes later and walked over to the police. Lin had a megaphone. "Come down at once immediately or we will be forced to take action." She shouted, as the man clung to the bridge high above and metal bender police lined up.
After they had been knocked off, Aang decided it was time for him to talk with the guy. Using airbending he was able to jump up, eventually landing on the pace next to the man. "Be calm, I just want to talk with you." He told the man.
"Avatar Aang?" The man said, sounding close to tears. "Please, I don't know what I'm doing and don't want to hurt anyone."
"Please do not be afraid, I understand you are terribly confused right now. Waking up to something different is hard. But you're not alone, just the opposite. Your part of a family. Believe me, were really excited to help you."
"Please, you the avatar, make it stop."
"Just give it a couple of days and you'll learn to love it." He said. "There are so many things you can do now. You can fly, and play air ball and oh, check this out!" He said pulling out marbles and doing the marble trick. He stopped and put them back when he realized the man wasn't getting his point. "Point being, that this change is not bad for you. Let me take you over to air Temple Island and we can talk this through," He said, offering a hand. "I promise that you'll learn to love it."
The man reached out to take his hand but his feet slipped and Aang jumped after the screaming man. He caught him and they glided to a halt, to the cheers of the crowd. He smiled as he realizes the man had stopped screaming part way through. He'd make and air bender yet.
The president walked up past the barricade as Tenzin and Aang talked to Da. "So is this the deal then? A crisis every other day thanks to you? Crisis not even two avatars can stop?"
"Listen I'm sorry these changes are not agreeable to everyone, but there's nothing we can do about that so you're just going to have to buck up and stop whining."
"Well you know who's leaving? You and Aang. You're a disgrace to being avatars. I order you both to leave the city. You done nothing but cause trouble."
"I was just leaving." She said, walking over to Aang and Tenzin and smiled. "I now my path now. There are new airbender out there and I'm going to find them and rebuild the air nation."
"Don't you mean, we are?" Aang said.
"It' so exciting, who know who's there right now, discovering the gift of airbending!" Tenzin said with jubilation.
Little did he know that far away on a mountain crag, there was a prisoner discovering the gift as well; a prisoner who was determined to bring about an era of anarchy.
Please comment, it makes my day!
Avatar Lizzy
