Alright onto chapter 4; The Southern Air Temple

Disclaimer: I only own my OCs. I forgot to mention that last chapter.

Warning: This chapter will not be as long as the others as Simon's actions differ from Aang's in the show. And there won't be a Gyatso Flashback. I mean I could add it in but there's no point to it as this is Simon's POV and it'd be more a flashback to a show playing a flashback and that is just silly.

Special thanks to Scarlet Lupin and Lilia-Mar for favoriting this story. And to Bowser Jr's Descendant and Faelyght for following.

Review responses; First to Scarlet Lupin. Thank you for your review. I can't wait for the next update either XD. And to Faelyght, Thank you for your review as well and I'm glad you loved chapter 3. The length on that one was a total fluke but I did manage to get a lot in.

I hope everyone enjoys this.

He slept as Appa flew towards the Southern Air Temple, towards Appa and Aang's home. His sleep was dreamless and deep. He'd been awake when they took off, but his seat beside Sokka was comfortable and the air flow felt nice.

"Aang! It's amazing!"

He shot up and looked around. Sokka hadn't moved from his spot in front of the sleeping bags and Katara was sitting near Aang.

"What'd I miss?" He asked them. Then he looked out in the direction they were going. There, on the nearest mountain was the temple. It was aged and covered in snow. But it was still beautiful.

"We've reached the temple." Sokka told him blandly. At the same time Aang told Appa affectionately that they were home.

"I see... How long until we land?" He asked with a grin as he turned towards Aang. The younger boy grinned as he looked over his shoulder at him.

"Any minute now!" He cheered before facing forward.

"Woo!" He shouted in return as he pulled his coat from his lap and put it on. He had used it as a blanket when he fell asleep. He felt refreshed. Then again, lately, he found that he got the best sleep while they were flying.

They landed at the base of the temple. Apparently Aang wanted to give them a full tour.

Aang got down first. He was followed by Katara. Then was Sokka. Aang ran off excitedly. Sokka and Katara walked off. Sokka turned and looked at him.

"Simon? You coming?"

"In a bit. I wanna chill with Appa a little first." He answered as he climbed down. He pet Appa's head as Sokka went back to walking after Aang. He smiled to himself.

Appa grunted distractedly as he moved to eat some weeds. He watched as the animal sniffed around before actually eating any of them.

"Okay, buddy. Don't eat anything that will hurt you. I'll check on you later. Okay?" He told Appa, petting him slowly. Appa grunted and nods. He nodded with a soft smile. Then he went in the direction that everyone else had.

Rounding the corner of the path he saw Aang and Sokka playing airball. Which just looked like a weird game of soccer. Aang saw him and waved while the young airbender managed to beat Sokka yet again.

He smiled and continued to walk around the temple. He took in all the sights. The temple was... dusty. Seemingly void of life. Which he knew wasn't completely true. After all a lemur he had yet to meet was there... and it knew where food was.

Thinking about that made his stomach growl. He made a face at his stomach. He hadn't realized that he was hungry. He was too busy exploring to think about it.

"Damn lemur, making me think about food." He groans to himself. To distract himself from his newfound hunger, he went to a courtyard with a snow covered wooden statue of an ancient monk.

"Oh... look at you. All covered in snow. Here, allow me to help you out." He told the statue softly before he began dusting snow off it's head, shoulders, lap and any other spot with snow on it. Then he smiled and said, "There. Much better. Isn't it."

He nodded to himself and took a step back. This was the courtyard that ultimately leads right to the Air Temples sanctuary. He wouldn't be able to see that until after Aang got up there. He was actually excited for that. He rubbed his hands together to warm them. He didn't have gloves. So he felt kinda dumb for wiping the snow of the statue with his bare hands.

Lifting his hands, he checked for splinters from the old wood. Surprisingly he didn't. Satisfied, he stuffed his hands into his coat pockets.

"Simon! Oh good, you're here."

He turned and saw Aang, Sokka and Katara walking toward him. It was Aang's cheerful voice that had called to him.

"Yeah. I explored my way up here and I got distracted..." He trailed off as he looked back at the statue.

"I take it that means you dusted him off?" Aang asked, standing next to him and motioning toward the statue in front of them. He blushed at how quickly Aang figured him out and nodded.

"So... Who's that?" Sokka asked from behind them.

"Monk Gyatso! The greatest airbender in the world. He taught me everything I know." Aang answered and he had to bite his tongue forcefully to keep from answering with the younger boy because he was positive he wasn't supposed to know that. And letting on that he knew things he shouldn't would make the people around him suspicious of him. So he looked at the ground as Aang bowed respectfully at the statue of his caretaker.

Here was, if he was only watching from home, where Aang would be having a flashback of him and Gyatso doing target practice with fruit pies and a few of the grumpier monks. He smiled to himself and watched Aang straighten up sadly and as Katara came forward and placed an understanding hand on his shoulder.

"You must miss him." She said softly.

"Katara, it's been a hundred years, I think he misses everyone he once knew." He said using his sassiest 'duh' tone with her. Someone had to say it. And Sokka had settled into a respectful silence. So he took a comment Melanie had a habit of pointing out when they watched this. Katara sent him a dirty look while Aang nodded and walked off.

"Where are you going?" Katara asked, turning to Aang at the sound of his walking up some stairs, toward what he knew was the Sanctuary. He squealed in delight at the sight. That's right, squealed. Loudly and like a little girl before quickly following after.

"The air temple sanctuary. There's someone I'm ready to meet." Aang answered, paying no attention to his response. Katara and Sokka looked wide-eyed and a touch frightened from his actions.

He ran excitedly down the hall to the door to the sanctuary and looked awestruck at the intricate lock that required airbending to open it. While he waited for the others, he hopped up at down with his left arms extended. He was trying to touch the pathway of the lock. He couldn't get himself high enough to actually touch it but he... Nope he didn't even get a little close to it.

"What... are you doing?"

He was mid hop when the question was asked. Surprised, he screamed and fell. Looking up he saw Aang, Sokka and Katara. All three looked a little worried about his sanity. It was Aang that had asked the question so he pouted childishly at the younger boy and crossed his arms over his chest before actually saying, "I wanted to touch it. Now that I've made a fool of myself, will you please open this Aang? I'm dying of excitement here!"

Aang raised an eyebrow at him but nodded all the same. He scrambled to his feet and moved to stand beside Katara. Watching as Aang took a deep breath and spread his arms and trust them forward, sending air currents at the tubes on the door. The air whistled as it went through the lock and soon the doors opened inward and the light from the hallway bled into the dark room.

"Hello? Anyone home?" Aang called into the room with his hands cupped around his mouth as a makeshift megaphone as he walked into the room. Katara, Sokka and him followed Aang in. He was smiling because he knew what was in there and he wanted to look at each one carefully.

He squinted in the darkness just barely making out the sight of all the statues in a spiral formation that went from the middle of the room with a few rings before going up a ramp to have them line the walls. So while the others looked confused he grinned and made his way to the ramp, watching the floor so his could look at them from the beginning to the one at the center.

"Simon! Where are you going?!" Katara called after him. He was already on the ramp so he looked over the side at her. She was squinting as she tried to locate him but thanks to the light behind her he could see her just fine.

"Don't worry so much Katara. You sound paranoid." He called back laughing. She huffed loudly and he continued up the ramp.

The fingers of his left hand trailed over the statues lightly as he went all the way to the very first one. Stopping at the beginning he turned to the statue there. It was wood and a man. Like Gyatso's statue it was in excellent condition. Though that didn't surprise him as it's been in an air tight room for centuries. The mans features weren't very detailed but he figured he was probably handsome in his own right.

Then he moved to the next one. it was also wood, male, not to detailed and in decent condition. As he moved from statue to statue he made a mental note that most of the statues on the ramp were made of wood and that most of them were male. When he did come across any female statues he noted that they weren't very feminine looking but that could have been the carvers fault.

He spent a lot of time inspecting the statues. He didn't realized that until he made it to the first stone statue on the ramp and he heard Aang shout "Lemur!" excitedly. He turned and sure enough, Momo sat in the doorway. He shrugged and looked at the statue in front of him again. Surprise surprise it was a man. However it was a touch more detailed than the wooden one beside it.

"Weird. They go all out on the stone but not the wood?" He questioned to himself as he moved on.

Man, man, man, woman, man, man and man. He noted as he breezed through the next several statues. He was off the ramp now and making his way around the spiral on the floor.

"Hey! Notice anything interesting?" Katara asked coming up next to him. Aang and Sokka had gone off after the lemur.

"Yeah. There's a shit ton of male Avatars. I'm beginning to think the Avatar Spirit is sexist." He told her seriously as they inspected the statues together.

"I was going to say something about the lemur but that's interesting too." She said shrugging. He guessed she didn't notice how there was probably only ten or fifteen woman statues in the room.

Slowly the two made their way to the most recent avatar, Roku. He looked exactly like he had when he sent him and his sister into this show. His eyes glazed over and he felt a sharp pain in his abdomen and he grabbed his stomach, collapsing into a heap at the foot of the statue.

"Simon!" Katara cried out kneeling beside him.

Through his blurred vision he saw the statues eyes and arrows, in the case of the airbenders, light up. That meant Aang had found Gyatso's skeleton. He grit his teeth as the pain spread through his body, followed with an icy sensation.

"Aang!" Katara said worried when she saw the statues. Then he saw her look at him, conflicted.

"Go to Aang. Don't worry about me." He ordered her the best he could. His fingers and toes felt as though they were on fire and the chill throughout his body clung to his bones. It vaguely reminded him of the first night he had on Appa, the could southern air seemed to penetrate his coat. But at the same time it felt much worse.

Katara eyed him, still conflicted, but she nodded and stood. He watched her run out to calm Aang before he clenched his eyes shut. His eyes were stinging and he could feel tears cascading down his cheeks.

His breathing came out labored and he clawed at his stomach, rolling onto his side.

His joints hurt. His head felt like it may explode, like a pressure was building within it or like his head was being held deep under water.

It was becoming harder to breathe. He cried out, his voice raspy and soft as though he was being strangled.

The cold overtook the heat in his extremities and he felt as though he may freeze in his heavy coat.

Rolling onto his back he opened his eyes and saw that Roku's glowing statue eyes were fixed on him. In that moment, his tears froze to his cheeks and his mouth went dry. His organs began to tingle and his cries became a feminine whimper. Though that had nothing to do with the agony he was in. A lot of the noises he made were fairly feminine.

His eyes slid shut and he grit his teeth as he felt pinpricks all over. He felt dizzy before he went limp on the cold stone floor. His mind fell into the darkness of a dreamless sleep that did not to shield him from the cold or the pain he felt.

"Simon!"

A trio of voices called to him. His eyes fluttered open and his face was stiff from dried tears. He was no longer in agony and the cold was gone. He felt... normal. The first person he saw when he opened his eyes was Sokka, who was hovering right over his face. Then he saw Aang and Katara. The three of them looked worried.

"Sokka, if you don't sit up a little I'm going to do something drastic." He said as he tried to sit up. His head felt fuzzy.

"Oh... Sorry." Sokka said quickly, bolting up. Then he adds, "Give him some space guys."

Katara and Aang looked at each other, rolled their eyes and sat back a little. He sat up and wiped his face with the sleeve of his coat. Then he looked up at Roku's statue. The glow was gone and it didn't seem like it was watching him anymore.

"Are you okay? What happened?" Katara asked him. She looked a bit peeved about him sending her away.

"Yea... I'm fine. I really don't know. That's never happened before..." He answered softly, shrugging.

"Well walk us through it. Maybe one of us can help figure it out!" Aang suggested. He looked at him and leaned toward him, hugging the airbender tightly.

"Thank you for the offer but I don't think you guys will know. I have this weird feeling that he knows. But we can't exactly ask him. Maybe if we see Melanie again she'll know..." He trailed off looking up at Roku's statue again.

"How is Roku supposed to help me if I can't talk to him?" Aang asked, frowning as he too looked at the statue.

"Maybe you'll find a way." Katara suggests as he and Aang separate and stand.

"I'm going to check on Appa." He tells them before turning and leaving the sanctuary. Momo was coming in with an armful of fruit as he was coming out. They stopped and looked at one another. "Hey little guy." He whispered softly as he knelt and scratched the lemur lightly behind the ears.

Momo watched him curiously as he stood and went outside and slowly made his way to Appa.

When he got there he found that Sokka wasn't the only one Momo was giving fruit. Appa was eatting a large pile of fruit.

"Hey big guy. I see you made a new friend. I'm happy you got something a bit tastier than those icky weeds. Everyone will be here soon and our dysfunctional family will have a new member. Are you excited?" He asked, talking to Appa as though he could really answer back.

The bison grunted and nods as he ate.

"Well, buddy, I'm going to take a nap. Being a person is tiring." He said petting the top of Appa's head before climbing into the saddle and curling up.

He was asleep by the time everyone joined them So he didn't hear any of the laughter or Momo getting his name but he knew that was happening. What he didn't know was happening though was his friends watching him worriedly when they finally took off. He didn't know that they'd be keeping an eye on him to make sure he really was back to normal.

There was no way he could know. He was sleeping when they decided it.