The Si Wong desert, also known as the "Desert of the Dead" was located in the center of the Earth Kingdom. Its hostile climate and massive sand dunes made it an hellish place to travel through but oddly, some tribes called this place home as well as a number of wild life as well. Flying over this hostile place was the worlds last flying Bison whose was owned by the worlds last Air Bender. Appa as he was called flew over the Si Wong desert with ease, on his head was his owner and friend, the Avatar, Aang. Also with them was Sokka, the brother of Aangs soon to be wife, Ty Lee and some of the other Kyoshi Warriors and Momo, Aangs other flying companion.

Katara, Suki, Mai, Zuko and Toph were not with them this time having stayed at Ba Sing Se. Their reason for staying behind were varied. Katara , Mai and Zuko chose to stay and help Suki with l ittle Kira, while Toph stayed because she felt that she would be of little use because she could not feel things as well in the sand as she would on solid surfaces. Even so, the rest of the team were off on another adventure and it had taken them to the Si Wong desert. You see, the previous night in Ba Sing Se. they saw a strange object covered in flames fly over the city and head in the direction of the desert and they were on their way to find out what it was.

The fight was a long one with minor stops in between. They would talk with persons on the ground who had seen the strange event and would point them in the direction they saw it go. As they flew along, Sokka began to speak.

" So... what do you think fell out of the sky?" he asked Ty Lee.

" I don't know, maybe it was just an normal meteorite or it could be just nothing." she said. "Or maybe... it could be a demon sent to our world to suck out our brains." She said with a strange look on her face which made him a little wary of her. He quickly moved away from her sat behind Aang and asked him the same question.

"Well, I really don't know but some how.. it did not feel right." he said.

" What do you mean that 'It did not feel right'?" Sokka asked his friend , confused by his answer.

" I can't explain it , but I have this feeling that .. there was something more to it than its odd shape. I just can't say what it is."

Sokka leaned back on the side of the saddle, he had long ago come to trust Aangs intuition and never doubt him. If Aang said there was more to this event then who was he to doubt him now? He just had to trust him.

Katara sat in the living room , in her arms was her young niece Kira sound asleep. Suki, went with Mai and Zuko to visit another orphanage in the city. It had become a habbit of Zuko to do this every time he came to Ba Sing Se. He did this be cause he thought that if he could show that the Fire Nation had changed maybe he could get the ball rolling on bettering the relations between his nation and the other nations of the world. As Katara watched Kira as sh slept she could not help but wonder what her first child with Aang would look like or if said child would be a water bender, or even a air bender. As she sat there with her thoughts. The door opened and Suki and Mai stepped in.

"There's ma little angel." Suki said as she gently picked up her child. "Thanks for watching her Katara."

"It was no problem, I just love watching her. Hey , where's Zuko?" Katara said.

"He's at the palace with the Earth King, he had to go over some trade treaty." said Mai "wheres Toph, shes still asleep?"

"Yes, I would try to wake her up but I don't feel like being used for target practice."

The 3 laugh at the thought of Toph coming at some one for waking her up. Suki went upstairs to place the sleeping Kira in her crib while Mai left to meet up with her husband at the palace. A little while later Suki came down in a fresh change of clothes and with Toph in tow.

"Wow sugar queen,you have Suki doing your dirty work for you now? I was hoping to get in some target practice before I went home." Toph said as she took her place at the table for lunch. Suki and Katara soon joined her and they began to eat.

"So, when is twinkle toes, and his merry band coming back?" Toph asked as she loudly slurped down her soup.

"We don't know. They did leave rather early." Suki said as she cleaned some of the soup off of her.

" yea, I wounder what they will find out there, if anything at all?" replied Katara as she ate her rice.

" Maybe they will find out that it was a demon that came down here to suck out our brains!" said Suki with a look on her face that made Katara flinch a bit.

"Suki..." said Toph " I think you have been hanging around Ty Lee a little too much."

As Appa flew over the desert waste land of Si Wong, the group were beging to feel the effects of the desert heat. They had been out for hours and the had not found any thing and what was worse was that their water supply was starting to shrink. They were about to call the mission a bust when Ty Lee spokeup.

" HEY! What's that ?" she yelled out, pointing at something in the distance. When every one looked at what she saw, their jaws hit the floor. They saw what looked liked a large impact crater on the desert floor, but what made it different from any other impact crater, was the fact that what ever made it kept on going .

The gang followed the large " Skid Mark" for a while, as they followed, the mark looked like it had split up in to another direction but they thought best that they should stay with the main one. After what felt like an eternity following this trail they saw it.

There, at the end of the trail, was a large metallic cylinder half buried in the sand. There seemed to be 2 smaller cylinders attached to either side of it , although one looked like it was broken in half it was white in color with a red line running along the side of it. But what shocked them the most was that there out side of the strange structure... were people.