Season twoooooo! Season twoooooooooooo! Seasonnnnnnn TWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

I'm excited.

So let's not waste any more time, friends and fans. Here's the first installment of the second book: The Avatar State.

What SHOULD have Happened in Avatar the Last Airbender: Book 2: Chapter 1

When the Avatar and his friends landed on the terrace of General Fong's base and dismounted from their sky bison, the general and his men stepped forward and formed a line while the commanding officer smiled and extended his arms. "Welcome, Avatar Aang!" The general saw the air bender and his friends stop stretching and turn towards him as he and his men bowed. "I am General Fong."

The Earth Kingdom officer then rose and threw his arms out. "And welcome to all of you: great heroes! Appa! Momo!" He watched the lemur fly to the monk. "Brave Sokka!" The older boy puffed out his chest. "The Mighty Katara!"

The water bender smirked and crossed her arms as her bald friend grinned from ear to ear. "'Mighty Katara'? I like that." She and her friends then jumped at the sounds of explosions and turned around to see fireworks going off in the sky.

Hakoda's daughter, her brother, and the Avatar glanced at the ground and saw Earth Kingdom soldiers bending green spheres up and then punching them into the sky. The balls sped up until they exploded in an array of colors and sound.

Sokka eyes shot open as he smiled. "Holy #`*&! You guys have are living bomb launchers!"

General Fong and his men all froze as they looked at each other. "What do you mean?"

The Water Tribe warrior spun around and stared at the general. "What do you mean, 'what do I mean'?" He pointed at the men who stopped shooting fireworks. "You guys have a way to accurately launch and guide explosive material towards your enemies!"

Sokka's sister smiled as well. "Wow! This must be your new weapon against the Fire Nation, which is why we've never seen them before! I mean, yeah, for the military version, you'd have to make them bigger than those to put more explosive material into them, but everything should still work the same, right?"

Aang whistled. "Those are amazing. I bet we're going to see them on the battlefield a lot. Especially with Sozin's Comet so close."

The leader of the Earth Kingdom troops rubbed his long beard. He then turned around to his men. "Group huddle!" Several of his men hurried around him and began whispering to their leader and each other. A moment later, the huddle broke and General Fong spun around and smiled. "Young Avatar, we can depart for Omashu whenever you are ready!"

The monk scratched his head. "So soon?"

"Well, we had other plans and things we wanted to try, but with this, we don't need them."

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

High atop a cliff that overlooked General Fong's outpost, the Earth Kingdom officer sat underneath a small wooden shrine. Around the round table in front of him, an herbalist placed a small root into a ceramic tea pot as the Avatar and his friends sat adjacent. "This rare, chi-enhancing tea is a natural stimulant. In an ordinary warrior it improves strength and energy ten-fold. In you, it may induce the avatar state."

Aang looked down at the cup the tea sat in. "Ten-fold energy, huh? I guess you guys must try to get your hands on this a lot and it surely will not be the last we see of it. I mean, rare though it may be, the ability to make a soldier ten times better in an instant has gotta be worth a lot. You must be putting a lot of energy into growing or cultivating or manufacturing the ingredients for this tea. I bet, with a hundred years of war and the comet closing in, we're sure to see this stuff spring up again in our travels, huh?"

General Fong glared at the boy and stroked his beard. "Just drink the damn tea."

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

As cherry blossoms bloomed and dropped their leaves outside of Iroh and his nephew's cabin, the old general emptied a bag of sea shells onto a table and smiled at them as he picked one up. "Look at these magnificent shells!" He grabbed another one. "I'll enjoy these keepsakes for years to come."

Behind the Dragon of the West, Zuko scowled at his uncle. "We don't need anymore useless things! You forget, we have to carry everything ourselves now!" Suddenly, he heard a young woman's cold voice from across the room.

"Hello, brother…"

Ozai's son and brother spun their heads to see the princess of the Fire Nation sitting at another shell-covered table.

"…Uncle."

Zuko narrowed his eyes, but then instantly raised his eyebrow. "Ok… I was going to ask what you're doing here, but now I'm curious how long you've been sitting there? I mean, did Uncle and I really just walk in to a one-room cabin, in the middle of the day, and not notice that there was someone else here? And did you really wait until after Uncle and I walked in, he examined his shells, and I gave a little quip before announcing your presence? Did you really wait for all that?"

Azula nodded. "Yes. Yes, I did."

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

As night bathed Zuko and Iroh's cabin in darkness, the scarred prince hastily moved back and forth through the cottage, packing his things. "We're going home!" The teen watched his uncle rub his chin. "After three long years! It's unbelievable!"

Iroh lowered his hand and crossed his arms. "It is unbelievable." He rubbed his beard. "I have never known my brother to regret anything."

"Did you listen to Azula? Father realizes how important family is to him." The prince narrowed his eyes. "He cares about me!"

"I care about you! And if Ozai wants you back, well, I think it may not be for the reasons you imagine."

The prince turned his back to his uncle. "You don't know how my father feels about me! You don't know anything!"

"Zuko, I only meant that, in our family, things aren't always what they seem." And that is the only warning I will ever give you.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

In his translucent, spiritual form, Aang found himself on the back of Roku's dragon while his previous life sat at the front of the beast.

Roku glanced at his reincarnation. "It's time you learned." The former avatar's dragon took them into the sky and through yellow clouds, where all the past avatars stood and looked on.

"The avatar state is a defense mechanism, designed to empower you with the skills and knowledge of all the past avatars. The glow… is the combination of all your past lives. Focusing their energies into your body.

"In the avatar state, you are at your most powerful. But you're also… at your most vulnerable."

Aang's eyes widened. "What do you mean?"

"If you are killed in the avatar state…" Roku and the other spirits began to disappear. "…the reincarnation cycle will be broken." All the avatars lined up beside the tattooed youth and the vanished. "And the avatar will cease to exist."

The Air Nomad called out into the void. "Ok, so teach me how to control it!"

Roku immediately appeared again. "What?"

"Just tell me how to control the avatar state." Aang shrugged his shoulders. "How did all of you do it? Surely there has to be a way, right?"

"Well of course."

"So how do I do it?"

The past avatar gritted his teeth. "It's a… um… long and complicated process."

"That's ok. I've gotta go to Omashu to learn earth bending. I've got time to kill."

"The details are too long for this brief meeting."

"Again, that's fine. Just show up in my dreams or something. Or can you point me in the direction of a person or set of scrolls that can teach me?"

"Well… uh… see the thing is… um…" The former avatar pointed behind the boy. "WHAT'S THAT OVER THERE?"

Aang simply huffed. "Did you really think I was gonna fall for that?"

"Er… It was worth a shot."

A/N: Wow, short one today, huh? I suppose it's for the best. I'm still worn from everything that was pulled apart in the season 1 finale. Yeah, that chapter I did three weeks ago… Just drink your damn tea.

That's all for today, folks. Hope you enjoyed it and be sure to join us next week for: Book 2: Chapter 2

The Cave of Two Lovers