A/N: Avin's got a lot to answer for now. So, can he explain everything? And will Aang even listen? R&R

"W-What…" Aang found that words almost failed him, "What are you talking about?"

Avin wrote the symbol for ignorance on the ground next to the symbol for the Avatar, and sighed. "This is our legacy, Aang. The plan that was put into action 100 years ago, and, if all goes as planned, ends in about five days."

"Let me start from the beginning," Avin said, raising a hand to silence Sokka, who had opened his mouth to speak, "Aang, do you remember an airbender by the name of Afiko?" Avin drew a line between the symbol for Avatar and the name Afiko.

Aang tried to remember, but said, "No, I don't. Should I?"

Avin erased the line between the two. "It doesn't matter. Afiko was a rival to Monk Gyatso. If Gyatso was the greatest airbender in the world, which he almost certainly was, then Afiko was the second greatest airbender in the world."

"What does that have to do with anything?" asked Sokka.

"Everything," Avin replied, "Because this sparked the beginning of a great rivalry, and, on Afiko's side, hatred."

"I don't understand," Aang said. Airbenders were supposed to help each other learn and grow; rivalries were something encouraged, since they would promote that. But for an airbender to feel something like hatred…

"It's unheard of, I know," Avin answered as though he had known Aang's thoughts, "But Afiko was an airbender who didn't have a benevolent bone in his body. I actually studied under him for a few years…" Avin scribbled a line between his name and Afiko's, and wrote out the word "sifu" on top of it.

"Afiko wasn't much of a father figure. Under him, my airbending never progressed as much as it could have." Avin looked up at Aang. "To be honest, I was jealous of the relationship you had with Gyatso, for a while."

"Something about Afiko, he liked experimenting. He came up with airbending techniques, on the pretense of 'seeking knowledge', he sought out ways to kill others using airbending. He came up with the most horrible tricks I've ever seen. As Gyatso gained more and more favor with the Council, Afiko fell deeper and deeper into his jealousy and evil. I'll relate the details of what happened some other time, but to make a long story short, Afiko soon took over the Council. Not officially, of course," Avin said, looking at the shocked look on Aang's face, "But he had a great influence over them. It wasn't hard, really. The Council was always susceptible to corruption. I think that's why Gyatso never joined them."

Aang and Sokka looked at Avin, curious to hear the rest of what Avin had to say. Avin didn't look up, and drew the symbol for the Fire Nation, and connected it to Afiko's name.

"Aang, tell me your thoughts on how the Air Temples were attacked."

"I have no idea," Aang said, surprised, "I thought the Fire Nation didn't even know how to get to the Temples, but…" he remembered with a pang of sadness what he had seen at the Southern Air Temple, and fell silent.

Avin looked over at Sokka. "Sokka, what do you think?"

Sokka furrowed his brow, and reflected for a few seconds. He then broke the silence. "Well, the Southern Air Temple was high up in the mountains, and Aang once said it was impossible to get there without a flying bison. Still, we found out at the Northern Air Temple that isn't always the case. But…the Fire Nation does need to know where they're going, or else they could have climbed every mountain for years and not find them. So I think an airbender betrayed them." Sokka concluded.

Avin smiled softly. "I knew it was a good idea to ask you," Avin said, "I believe that as well. I also believe that airbender," he circled Afiko's name, "was Afiko."

Aang started. "WHAT?! You think an airbender, one of our own people, would betray us?"

"I absolutely do. Afiko had seen the war coming, and tried with the Council to prevent it. But he saw what the Council did not: They could not stop the war from happening. Nothing could stop the war from happening at that point in time. And I guess he's such a horrible being that he decided to kill his people to save his own skin," Avin said, struggling to keep the anger out of his voice.

"I can't believe someone would do that!" Aang said, clenching his fists in anger.

"It doesn't matter if you believe it or not, because it doesn't affect the fact that it happened. He condemned our race to death. But before the airbenders were killed, they had time to devise a counterattack. A plan that, whether they were there or not, as long as two airbenders remained, it could still be carried out." Avin connected his name to the Avatar symbol. "Us."

Sokka and Aang fell silent for a bit, and then Aang spoke up. "What plan?"

Avin smiled. "100 years ago, the airbenders made hidden chambers in every one of the Air Temples. Of course, you know this, because if I'm not mistaken, you've visited the hidden chambers of all but the Western Air Temple, correct?"

"Right," replied Aang.

"In any of them, have you seen a scroll, maybe a letter?"

Aang shook his head. "We might have missed it, though; something like that would be small and easy to miss."

"Still, if it wasn't in a place you could see it easily…the odds are it resides in the Western Air Temple." Avin drew the words Western Air Temple in the soft dirt. "Aang, I'm not going to lie to you. All my hopes lie with this Temple. I hope to find, not only the white lotus tile, but other airbenders."

"What?" Aang looked at Avin in shock. "Do you really think they're there?"

"If they aren't, then they do not exist anywhere else, I can tell you that. Whether they're there or not, however, the letter is there, I'm almost sure of it. Once we have it, I can take us where we need to go; we can do what we have to do. The monks set everything in place. All we have to do is execute it. And, of course," he added, "We only have until the Comet arrives, but you knew that."

Feizhi walked up to Avin and raised an eyebrow. "Avin..."

Avin nodded. "Right. I'm sorry, guys, but I need to talk to Feizhi alone."

"I have a lot of questions," Aang said.

"I have a lot of answers, but for now I need to talk to Feizhi."

Aang nodded, and he and Sokka left the campsite, heading for the river.

"So, how did it go?" Feizhi asked cheerfully, sitting down next to Avin.

"I think that they trust me completely. They're good people. They're my friends."

Feizhi wrapped her arms around Avin. "You shouldn't get too attached to them, you know. You might get second thoughts."

"I've had second thoughts ever since I met them," Avin said, thinking about his new friends, "But I'm not going to be the monster other men would make me."

Avin looked at Feizhi. "Aang doesn't know much. No one ever bothered to tell him the truth, not even Monk Gyatso."

"Maybe he thought Aang couldn't handle that kind of thing," Feizhi replied, taking her arms off him and lying on the ground, "After all, they had put him through so much already. Maybe Gyatso wanted to preserve what was left of Aang's innocence."

"I'm going to have to take it away if I want everything to go as planned."

"Avin, you don't have to do any of this. Like you said, they're your friends."

"Yes, I do. I made a promise…."

Flashback

"Avin, help me!" the little girl shouted as the Fire Nations soldiers took her away.

"Rixama! RIXAMA! Let me go, you monsters!" Avin shouted as more Fire Nation soldiers grabbed him, holding him back.

"Be quiet!" A soldier grabbed Avin's forehead, and burned it.

Searing pain exploded in his head, and he shouted in anger.

"You cowards, you're kidnapping a little girl! She didn't do anything! And you only have the guts to do it when there are twenty of you holding me back?! LET HER GO!" Avin cried as his blood ran down his face.

The soldier that burned him before hit him in the stomach, knocking the wind out of him.

"Rixama…!" Avin choked out.

"Get him out of my sight," the captain said, and the soldiers dragged a half-conscious Avin away….

Five days later, Avin was trapped deep in the catacombs of a Fire Nation dungeon. He licked the fresh blood dripping from his mouth. His face contorted in anger, as he thought of Rixama, and how it was his fault, how he couldn't protect her…

"Rixama, I won't forget you. I'll do whatever it takes, even if it costs me my life. I promise, I'll do anything. I'll kill, I'll steal, I'll use. But first, I'll escape, and I'll come back and find you. I promise you….your freedom!"

End Flashback

"Toph, hurry up with those bags!" Sokka shouted, hoisting his bag up onto Appa, "We're leaving soon!"

"All right, I'm going!" Toph ran up to Sokka.

"Is everyone on?" Aang asked as Sokka and Toph jumped onto Appa.

"Aang, I think Avin's still sleeping somewhere," Feizhi said quietly.

"Agh, again? He's always sleeping in…I'll go find him." Toph muttered, jumping off and landing softly on the ground.

"I'll go too," Feizhi exclaimed, following Toph.

"Just hurry up, you two. The sooner we get out of here, the better!" Katara shouted after them.

"Yeah, yeah…" Toph and Feizhi said simultaneously.

As Toph and Feizhi wandered past an oddly shaped boulder, the two felt an awkward silence come over them. Somehow Toph and Feizhi hadn't really talked to one another since Avin woke up, for some reason.

"So…" Feizhi tried breaking the silence.

"Yeah…" Toph attempted to keep it going.

The girls fell silent again, both mildly embarrassed at their failure to have a multi-syllable conversation.

Suddenly, Toph heard a rustling noise, and turned to face it. "It's Avin! But…" she bended a wall of earth up, just in time to block a jet of fire, "He's got company!"