For all the horror stories told about it, the Northern Air Temple looked like any ordinary wonder of the world. Spires that split the clouds, narrow winding roads across the mountaintop, and pristine Air Nomad masonry made up the temple. It was far more beautiful than scary and while it was totally crazy that man had built such a place it was clearly built by man. Not aliens. Not spirits. Just man.
Appa landed on a flat connected to the tallest tower, and Sokka slid to the ground and admired the view. Beautiful white-capped mountains dotted the top of the horizon. Sokka leaned over the edge of a cliff, sucked up some snot, and spat a loogey down to the clouds below. It reached terminal velocity quickly, was caught by an updraft, and came rushing back. Sokka jumped out of the way. "Nice try universe, but I'm not that easy!"
"Alright guys, let's go over the plan one more time," Teo said, clapping his hands. "We're going to go single file. Me first. Followed by Haru, Aang, then Sokka in the back."
The plan was solid, if underappreciated by the less logically inclined of the group. Sokka doubted that the so called evil spirits existed, but there was obviously something dangerous lurking in the temple. Poisonous gas? Bandits? A secret Fire Nation base? Whatever it was, the man taking point would be in the most danger. If the secret of the temple was bandits, it was likely they'd strike from the rear. Thus Teo put the two most disposable members of the team in the two most dangerous positions.
"When we explore a room me and Sokka check it out first. If we don't find anything, we'll call Haru in, and check over the room again. Then Aang enters and we can go deeper," Teo said.
Plenty of nonbenders had explored the Northern Air Temple. To them it was just a collection of old abandoned buildings. The spirits only attacked benders, and even then, only at night. Thus they would all investigate the temple during the day and get a feel for its layout. Sokka and Teo would continue exploring that night, and if they found nothing, they'd search the temple a third time with Haru. Only if all three attempts to find the mystery of the phoenix failed would Aang be allowed to join them. Cautious? Yes. Paranoid? Obviously. Sokka didn't even believe in any of the superstitious phoenix nonsense, but he was a rationalist and a pessimist, and he knew that the second he puffed out his chest the universe would send his own loogey back at-
"Aang what are you doing?" Teo cried. Aang had sprinted inside the temple, leaving Teo's carefully constructed plan in tatters. Aang hopped back to the temple entrance.
"What are you guys waiting for?" Aang asked, balancing upside down on a ball of wind. He flipped to his feet in a dizzying display of acrobatics. "That phoenix isn't going to find itself."
"What about the plan?" Teo asked. "We need to keep you safe. If the phoenix is real, and it-"
"Relax Teo," Aang said, strutting to the older boy like a peacock-rooster. "It'll never catch me. Besides, your way sounds boring. So slow! Where's your airbending spirit? Let's make it an adventure!"
Teo smiled. "You're right. The plan's garbage. Let's do this!" The two boys charged into the temple. Sokka and Haru shared a look, tightened their grips on their cherry bombs, and sprinted after their leader. They entered a long dark hallway, with bright rays of light shining in from rows of windows. There were no objects scattered about, no dust in the air, and no animals or insects scurrying below. The walls contained a mural of clouds, the colors still sharp, as if they'd been painted yesterday. At the hallway's end stood a heavy wooden door, covered in pipes and ornamental spirals.
"Let me handle this," Sokka said, pulling out a knife. He stabbed as hard as he could, burying the carved ivory into wood. He held his ear to the hilt, and heard the soft ringing of the ocean. He forced himself to wait for some disruptions: a knock, a thud, or any other rhythm almost too quiet to hear. He heard nothing. "Alright Haru. Open the doors. It's clear."
"Me?" Asked Haru, "What am I supposed to do?"
"You're an earthbender remember? Earthbend!"
"But-"
"You can do this Haru," Sokka said.
Haru bit his lip, and heaved his arms upwards, pulling some bricks off the ground. He lunged forward, pelting the door with projectiles. They bounced off it, leaving no damage but for some ugly imprints.
"Stop!" Aang snarled. "What are you doing? This place is sacred!"
"We need to get the door open," Sokka explained. "Haru keep trying. I think I heard something crack."
"I said stop!" Aang rammed Haru with a shoulder, knocking him to the ground. "What's wrong with you people? How would you like it if I went to your house, and started breaking everything!"
Sokka would simply patch the hole in the igloo with more snow, and move on. No big deal.
"We need to get the door open," Teo said. "I'm sorry it offends you Aang, but my ancestors abandoned this place. There's something evil inside. It's your duty as the Avatar to find it and exterminate it."
"You've forgotten our teachings Teo." Aang sniffed, walked to the door, and pointed to two pipe openings that looked like little airhorns. "You still have a lot to learn about the world. You're so obsessed with how it needs to change that you don't take the time to understand it. You can't force this temple open by attacking it with weapons and bending." Aang held out his arms, and channelled an air current into the piping. The wind whistled and howled. It grew stronger, until something deep within the wood clicked, and the doors slowly creaked open in the opposite direction that they'd been pushing. Darkness oozed from the room, slowly giving way to light. "You've got to work with it, and gently push it to your will. You can't kill a phoenix Teo. Never speak of murder so lightly! Peace and understanding are the ways of the Air Nomad!"
Bones littered the front of the room. It was hard to tell how many people had died here, as their skeletons had broken apart into fragments. Sokka picked up a perfectly preserved femur and a tiny ribcage that must've come from a rodent. They still seemed strong, the type of bone that could be whittled down into a spear. The femur was white and polished, with no sign of blood or damage, which shouldn't have been possible unless someone had cleaned it. Sokka got a sinking feeling. Aang wouldn't like it, but he had to know. "Don't freak out Aang. I'm doing this for a good reason."
Sokka snapped the femur in two, revealing it hollow. No bone marrow. There should've been something in there, mold, alcohol, anything. Matter didn't just go away. Matter couldn't be destroyed, only altered. At least that's what the old textbooks from the ship had said. Sokka looked over the bone for any holes, anyway the marrow could have escaped. He found nothing. "Guys, I think I've…"
Aang was staring at a chiseled stone statue. One of several. It was life-sized, and depicted a proud old man, hair tied in a bun, dressed in elegant Fire Nation silk. Some of the other statues were men, some women, some wore humble Air Nomad tunics, other Water Tribe furs. They all shared athletic builds that spoke of a lifetime of training in the bending arts, and the confidence that came from only the truly powerful. They also shared one other, small, insignificant detail. They had no eyes. Someone had scratched them out.
Hmm. The Fire Nation had probably been here. A sect that had a grudge against the Avatar. It would explain the childish vandalization of the statues, and the empty bones. What a bunch of freaks.
"Do any of you guys see anything?" Teo asked, circling the perimeter of the room, gliding his fingers across the bricks. "Something was here, but It left. I'm not seeing any doors or anything. Unless I'm missing something; It must be in another spire."
Haru nudged Sokka. "I don't like it here. This place gives me a bad feeling."
"Yeah," Sokka said, pulling out a spear. His mind was… There was something… He couldn't put a finger on it, but something wasn't quite right. It went deeper than the skeletons or the scratched out eyes, it was something else. An echo… No a whisper! Like knives in his ears! "Be prepared for an attack."
Teo heard him, tilted his head, and pulled out his… Little metal tube? Why not the knife or the cherry bombs? "It shoots fire," Teo said, nodding to the tube. "I call it a fire spitter."
"Eww," Sokka squealed. Teo handed him the new toy reluctantly, and Sokka turned it over, inspecting its compartments. A little hole on top to drop… Sokka pulled out one of the nitroglycerin bombs they made together, and compared the relative sizes. Didn't fit, and of course, where would the fire come from? The mechanism must've worked in some fundamentally different way, but then again, why should it? Sokka handed Teo the fire spitter, mind racing. What if you took the same basic concept: an explosion in a small chamber, directed by a metal tube, and replaced the fire with a small projectile? Sokka's heart raced, and he whipped out a scroll. It was a map of the world, the only one he had, but right now its value paled in comparison to the idea he had in his head. It felt like he was channelling something else, something beyond himself, and he was simply the medium for its creation. He knew the connection wouldn't last long. He sketched an empty chamber, with a cherry bomb pushed and secured at the back end. Behind the chamber he sketched a hammer to set off the bomb, and below a magazine which would secure the… The little metal arrowheads. The lighter the better. The faster they moved the more deadly they would be. The chamber would have one permanent opening upon the drop of the hammer, a long metal tube to guide the arrow head in the direction the user wanted. He nodded and added little markers atop the end of the tube, to help the shooter aim. All right, that was the gist of it. His first invent-
Red energy exploded from the walls, covering them all in a blinding bloody hue. And in a flash the lights faded, forming… Letters, words, a message?
Before I ascended, man lacked morals and chaos reigned. To change this, I tried to create a moral code. Religion. But afterwards, man's descendents grew strict and rigid. Baby girls drowned for my favor. I never intended this. Destroy me if you must, but only me. We will need the others. He grows stronger. I am sorry.
This was once told to a dear friend. Do you like it? Now come. Find me.
"What?" Aang asked, suddenly pale. "What the fuck was that?"
Sokka blinked, he'd never heard Aang swear. It was a dumb question with an obvious answer. It was a message to Aang. From Bumi's phoenix. The spirit that couldn't be killed, the spirit that wanted to destroy the world. The spirit of evil. By the moon, he'd taken this to lightly. They weren't ready! He and Teo would be useless in a fight, Aang had no attack power, and Haru could barely earthbend. They needed to retreat, and come up with a better plan.
It was the most logical course of action. They hadn't come here for a confrontation. They'd only come for information. They'd gotten their information; it was time to go.
"There's a room below us," Haru said. "I can feel the absence of the earth."
"It's a riddle," Teo said. "There must be a trapdoor hidden somewhere. It must be underneath one of the statues. An Air Nomad most likely. They didn't accept girls into their ranks."
"We have to destroy it," Aang said slowly. "Whichever Avatar created this message has to be destroyed. That thing's waiting for us. Let's go kill it."
"It's why we're here," Haru said, shoulders set. "That thing doesn't stand a chance against me!"
"It took my mom from me," said Teo, a big smile spreading across his face like a bloodthirsty plague. "I wouldn't mind a little revenge."
Sokka's eyes widened. It was here already, and more dangerous than he had ever considered. "Haru! Aang! LEAVE!"
They stared.
"NOW!" Sokka roared.
"Come on Sokka," Aang said, his smile stretching wider and wider, approaching slowly, carefully. "I know it's scary, but it's our job to-"
"If you're not out of here in the next three seconds, I'm pulling the stem." Sokka held out his cherry bomb. "One... Two... Thr-"
"Okay Sokka," said Haru, smile dimming just a little. "But we'll come back at the first sign of danger. We won't leave you."
The benders left.
Sokka exhaled.
The stories said that the monster in the Northern Air Temple stole a man's bending, and wore their skins. Aang was a pacifist. Haru was a coward. Teo was… Well he honestly didn't seem to affected, but the legends did say nonbenders had nothing to fear.
"Sokka?" Teo asked, hand on the holster of his fire spitter. "What the fuck were you doing?"
"You don't feel Him?" Sokka asked. "Haru that confident? Aang talking about killing? He's already in all our minds. Distorting our thoughts. Corrupting our souls."
Teo narrowed his eyes, and pointed the fire spitter at Sokka. "You were the one threatening to blow us all up. You were the one who said you believed in science. Yet here you are justifying your actions through fear of the supernatural. If anyone's soul has been corrupted, it's yours."
Sokka tilted his head, as he looked over one Avatar statue after another. "You're wrong you know? You and Aang were wrong. You thought that riddle was about an airbender?" Sokka sneered. "You thought it was a confession? All I heard were excuses." He paused on an airbending Avatar, and inspected her stone dress. Soft and smooth, like one from the Earth Kingdom. He passed over a male waterbender, and moved on to an earthbender. A tall, stern woman bearing two fans. He glanced down the row, and as he suspected, all the preceding airbenders were men wearing modest tunics.
Teo continued to aim the fire spitter at Sokka, but inspected the last female airbender more closely. "Mom?"
"Um Teo, that's a statue of an Avatar who's been dead for hundreds of years."
"No shit," Teo said. "I'm talking about this." He pointed at the woman's feet, and Sokka noticed a little inscription carved in the stone. Roll lick flip rat. Lap full road rest fun lock leap fill. "That's my mom's handwriting."
Sokka scratched his head. Teo's mom must have gone mad, but that wasn't what was important. "If your mom's carvings are on the statue she obviously didn't destroy it, which makes sense, because the riddle isn't talking about an airbender." Sokka settled next to the last man in furs, before a long line of male airbenders in tunics. A proud tall man, wearing an easy going smile. He looked smug. Like Bato. "I know a tribesman when I hear him. He blamed the people before him for forcing him to create religion. He blamed the people after him for warping it. But he himself is blameless. Do you see?" Sokka caressed the man's face, and the statue slowly sunk. Its feet melted into the floor, its face dissolved into dust. "The confession was a lie. It wasn't a confession at all. It was an excuse."
A spiral staircase was revealed. They could walk down it, and go into the dungeons. Go farther into the monster's lair. But they should probably regroup now that they knew the phoenix was real. They'd already learned how it could affect people, and that was huge. A wise commander knew when to retreat. But the staircase had a pull on Sokka. He wanted to learn more about spirits, more about chi, and all that mystical nonsense he'd always thought was a load of bull-turkey.
The heavy wooden entrance to the Avatar Room groaned. Slowly, the large doors started to close, started to finalize their departure from the material world.
Sokka and Teo shared a glance. They could still escape if they ran for the exit. Or they could go down the staircase, and find the mysteries hidden in the dungeon. Natural light started to bleed from the room but it did not get darker. Red balls of energy ignited in the air, and pulsated around Sokka. He had the distinct feeling they were being watched.
The doors thudded to a close. Sokka stepped down the staircase. Teo followed.
"Keh-eh-illing," Katara read slowly, sounding out the letters. "Killing," she said proudly, astounded by her newfound mental prowess.
"Ceiling," Mai drawled over her shoulder.
"You're wrong," Katara smirked. "There's a 'c' in it. 'C' makes a 'kuh' sound. 'C' as in cat-dog right?"
"That's true in most cases," Mai said, and yawned. "But not when it's followed by an 'e'."
"I see," Katara said, glaring down at the 'c'. But actually she didn't 'c' at all. She hated the stupid little letter and all its stupid little rules. "Give me another word!"
"This is boring," Mai yawned, scribbled something down on the parchment, and flopping onto her bed.
"Tah-yah-lee," Katara read, and frowned. Tallee wasn't a word. "Tile?"
"Ty Lee," Mai said, with a hint of… something in her voice. Her pasty white cheeks were flushed, ahh, shy ole' Mai was embarrassed!
"That's one of your old friends from school right?" Katara asked neutrally. "Do you ever miss her?"
"She was my only friend from that place," Mai said blankly. "A mean girl, with very high status used to pick on her. Ty Lee was too naive to realize she was being… I tried to defend her. But eventually her secret got out, and I… I decided I couldn't protect her anymore. I gave up on my friend without even trying to save her. I don't feel like I deserve to miss her."
Katara understood Mai perfectly. She missed Sokka. She missed Gran-Gran. They'd always treated her like family, and she'd taken their love, their acceptance, and betrayed them. She'd joined their enemies and become everything that the tribe had claimed she would be. Her heart yearned to rejoin her family but her soul feared it. She understood, but she didn't feel like sharing. Not yet. "What was Ty Lee like?"
"Loud. Capricious. Annoying. Not at all like she is now; I miss her," Mai said, her back to Katara. "She's different now. Maybe you've met her. She's the Commander of the Chlorine Corps."
"No," Katara said. "But I've heard of her. She's like me right, another of Princess Azula's experiments? They were always held back though, never saw acti-"
"They have," Mai interrupted. "And you two are similar. Were similar. She always used to talk about home you know, just like you do. Her people. Her real people. She told me they'd run from a demon. It stalked, seduced, and stole the soul of every bender it could find. Then it wore their skin and blended into the group. It could be months, years, and a friend you'd known for a lifetime would go mad and kill everyone he could. And when you did what had to be done you'd find no blood underneath his skin, just a blank empty husk. And you'd know that your friend had died long ago, and you'd mistaken them for a demon. She told me that her people gave up their bending for the ability to see auras. But Ty Lee was different from her sisters. She had the old power, the one we thought we'd erased. She thought it made her special; other people thought so too. I didn't fight for her Katara. Her family was stripped of its wealth and lands, her sisters were sold off to marriage, and my best friend lost everything that made her, her. Everything except what made her special."
The parallels were obvious. Katara hated it. "I've been thinking of a new firebending technique," Katara said abruptly. "Something new. I thought of it the other day, when I was using the fire skin technique. Tell me what you think." Katara showed Mai the new firebending move she'd been working on.
"It's too slow." Mai threw a knife to demonstrate. It stuck in the inn's wall. "Unless you can make it move there's no point."
"But it's a good idea right?" Katara asked. "It's got a lot of promise?"
Mai scowled. "Yes…"
Katara pointed her nose at the ceiling. "It's only a matter of time until I surpass Azula."
"Katara," Mai said. "Don't be an idiot. You'll never beat the Princess."
Katara smiled. "We'll see."
Sokka was surrounded by darkness. The red lights had faded as the staircase ended, leaving Sokka in an empty, flat, void.
"Teo? You there?"
"I'm here Sokka."
Sokka let out a breath. He'd never heard true silence before. Never heard the deafening, ringing, roar of nothingness. He could hear it now, and it was unnerving. And impossible. If a room was so well insulated that it blocked out all outside noise, it should also reflect sound off the walls in an echo. But when Teo spoke, the noise died instantly.
Sokka kneeled, and brushed the ground. Flat, dry, and rough. Felt like bricks or cement. Normal stuff.
"Hey Sokka, come feel this," Teo said.
Sokka took a few steps forward, to meet the voice, and smacked into a wall. It budged. Sokka held out his hands and pushed, and the wall gave way. Until it didn't anymore, and could be moved no farther. Strange.
"This is a revolving-one-way door," Teo said softly. "My mom and dad used to build them together back before she disappeared. They only allow entrance from one direction and shut as soon as you go through them."
"Maybe there's another one," Sokka said uncomfortably. "Let's slide against the walls and search for another one. You go left, I go right."
"Gotcha."
Sokka pushed against the walls but felt nothing but bricks. Until he hit something. Another wall. He pinched the corner with a thumb; the two walls formed a perpendicular. This place wasn't a cave, which begged the question, why build any of this? Didn't make sense, Sokka thought, as he pushed against the wall. Why build a maze under a statue? Unless you wanted to keep something secret. Like the worship of an evil, but powerful spirit, which led to an obvious conclusion. Sokka and Teo should be sprinting up the stairs, away from all of this spiritual mumbo-jumbo, where up was down and left was right. And yet…
The wall slid from Sokka's touch. "Teo! Come here!"
Together they pushed the door, and it turned and turned until it turned no more. Everything was still dark, but Sokka was pretty sure they were somewhere new. Something snapped under his feet. There were some rocks on the ground, some long and skinny, some small and sharp, and others… That one was definitely a ribcage. These were bones.
"You go left, I go right?" Teo asked.
"Sure," Sokka said. He slid against the wall, and found nothing. "Where do you think the bones come from?" They hadn't been hunted, or they'd have been more damaged, so they must have come from dehydration or starvation.
"Explorers," Teo murmured softly. "My mom wouldn't have died here though. Not from a dead end. She's better than that."
Sokka shivered.
Teo found a door, which led to a room with more skeletons, and another door. Naturally they went through it, and found another room. No skeletons in this one.
"Same as always?" Teo asked. "Me right; you left?"
"Sounds good." Sokka slid against the walls, turned at the corner, and found another door.
"Got one!" Teo said.
"Me too," said Sokka. This wasn't good, but perhaps it was no worse than what they'd been doing before. It wasn't like they could go back the way they came. The only difference was that they had a choice. Left or right.
"My Gran-Gran used to tell me that if you got lost in a cave always turn left." There wasn't any difference which door they chose to go through. They had no information. If they sat and thought about it, they'd end up overthinking things, and get invested in a decision they had no control over. "Teo, let's go through my door… Teo?"
"Will you shut up?" Teo snapped. "I'm trying to think."
"What's there to think about? Just choose a damn door!"
"Do you know what shut up means?"
"You want us to go through your door? Fine!"
"That's not what this is about. I'm just trying too… You know what, never mind!"
"What were you gonna say?" Sokka demanded.
"It's just… I don't remember much about my mom okay? She disappeared in here, and the last thing she wrote was… See, I told you, stupid!"
"Yeah it is," Sokka said brazenly. "I was hoping you were thinking of something useful. Like which door to choose, not about your dead mother."
Sokka waited.
Silence roared.
Darkness shined.
"Do you remember which way we've gone?" Teo asked eagerly, childishly, without any of the venom Sokka expected.
"I do," Sokka said. He'd be a lousy hunter if he couldn't retrace his steps. "We went right after the staircase, left to the next room, and straight through to get here."
"Right, left, forward," Teo said, a smile hidden in his voice. "Roll, lick, flip, rat. Lap full road rest fun lock leap fill. I think we should go right, through my door."
"Finally," Sokka said, and they pushed through the door. Into another room. This one had skeletons. A door. And a staircase. They went down it, and descended, and descended, and descended.
Finally they were at the bottom. A new room. Still dark. But no longer empty. There was a great, big, stone… Something. Clearly a statue, but of what Sokka couldn't say. He couldn't tell much about it without any light, but it didn't feel human. Nor did it feel like an animal. If anything, it felt like an inverted stalacti-
Sokka snapped his neck. He'd thought he'd heard something. A scurrying sound, like a bug or a crab or… "Teo. That you?"
"Yeah," said Teo, and Sokka blew out a breath. "This place is huge. Wide open. I think we're in the caves under the mountain."
"No," said Sokka. "The ground is too flat and even. We're still walking on- Teo stop moving!" Nothing. Sokka must have imagined- No. Not twice. Something was in here. Watching. Waiting. Sokka took a breath. Then another. Okay… His fingers tightened around his boomerang. He could catch it in his sleep, so surely he could catch it in complete darkness. He tossed it at the last place he'd heard the sound. The ceiling.
It screamed. A flash of fire lit the room, and It dropped to the ground Its arm smothered in blood. And then It turned, giving Sokka a good look at Its face.
Author's Note: Thanks for reading! Next Time in The First Firebender... Sokka couldn't stop them. He couldn't control his memories. His darkest fantasies, his deepest secrets, his strongest convictions were all viewed and shared without his consent. The battleship. A toy steamboat. Pride. Rejection. Failure. Katara gone. Anger. Rage. Isolation. Full moon. Iceberg. Splitting. Aang. Lies- No, his will, his will, Sokka still had control of his will. Without logic, without thought, he forged on.
