I do not own PJO or A:TLA

Chapter 36

Aang soon convinced a spirit to take them to the wall while Percy gaped at the weirdness of the Spirit World. Things were transparent and floating and whispy and there were a few odd creatures spread around. Even a frog without a face.

They followed the small rabbit/butterfly cross spirit to a wall of pure light.

Percy gaped at it. The wall was made out of pure cosmic energy. The pure white light shone so brightly it hurt Percy's eyes.

But that wasn't all. Seeping through like mold or something, red spot appeared randomly across the wall. They seemed to grow bigger while Percy and Aang stood there.

"I've seen this before." Aang said softly, gazing up in wonder. The light seemed to not bother him. "In a dream, when I was cut off from the Avatar Spirit, this red light starting coming in and infecting the light from the Spirit. I thought repairing my lost connection with the Avatar Spirit would have fixed this..."

Percy shrugged. "I dunno what to do." He felt helpless. He was good at fighting and mouthing off and using a sword. All the spiritual, magical stuff made him uneasy. He could think of fifty of his friends that would be better at this than he was.

Aang walked up to the wall, his big eyes calmly taking all the energy in. He looked so small as a silhouette against the giant wall of light, but he wasn't afraid.

"Aang?" Percy called uneasily.

Aang slowly reached out a hand and gently touched the wall.

Lighting tore the sky in two and thunder cracked like a whip. Aang's body arched like he had been electrocuted and fell to the ground, smoke rising from his clothes and arms.

Percy was at his side in a second, pulling him on his back and trying to shake him awake. "Aang! C'mon buddy. Wake up." He coaxed, his heart pounding his his ears.

"Hello, half-blood." A deep, grave voice said from above them.

Percy grabbed Aang's body and scrambled backwards a little, staring up at the old, spirit man.

"Do... do I know you?" Percy asked. The guy looked weirdly familiar.

"Yes, I'm afraid you do." He smiled kindly and put his hands into his long flowing sleeves. "My name is Ruko. I was the Avatar before Aang. I fear I was too harsh on you when you first came to this world. I tried to frighten you away, not quite realizing it was your destiny to be here." He continued to look at the two boys on the floor. His eyes were old but kind.

Percy remembered how he had shot fire from his mouth to try and get him to leave and stayed wary.

"Why are you here?" He asked. Aang groaned and his muscle contracted. Percy held him tighter.

"I am here because Aang needs to let his failure go." Ruko looked serious now. He crouched down and held out his hand to touch Aang's head. "Mistakes... are a part of life. It just so happens that the mistakes of the Avatar tend to have a greater affect on the world than we care to really address. Aang is afraid of his failure back in Ba Sing Se. He thought for a while that the his connection had not only been lost with the Avatar Spirit, but that he had killed it forever."

Percy looked down at the unconscious Aang and his chest felt heavy. Aang had carried that guilt and fear for months without telling anyone.

"What can I do?" Percy asked thickly.

Ruko smiled again. "Forgive him, and show him that the world has forgiven him, just as he forgave me. He is not a bad person for what has happened."

"Can't you tell him?" Percy asked. "You know him better, he is, well, you."

Ruko shook his head sadly. "No, it will not do much good. Aang knows I do not blame him for what happened. It is only his friends he fears judgement from."

Percy nodded. "Okay, I'll tell him. Thank you, Ruko."

"You are welcome, half-blood. Thank you for defending my world."

And with those last words, he dissipated into mist and floated away.

Aang stirred and half opened his eyes. "What happened?" He asked, speech slurred.

"Let's go back to the group." Percy said and helped the Avatar up. "We need to talk to your friends."

Aang nodded and closed his eyes again, but he wasn't asleep. Percy felt himself become weightless and the ground below him starting falling away. He would have screamed except for Aang's tranquil face.

Then, what felt like slamming into a brick wall, Percy opened his eyes in his own body in the physical world again.

Katara was kneeling beside Aang, who touched his head and blinked away the cloudiness from his eyes.

"Aang was making weird sounds. He sounded like he was hurt." She said to Percy accusingly. "What happened? Did you guys find the wall?"

Percy nodded. "We did." And he looked sadly at Aang. "But we can't fix it until we have an intervention."

"Intervention?" Sokka came over a hill with the rest of the group and flopped down next to Percy. "An intervention for what?"

"For Aang." Percy reached out and gripped Aang's knee. "The Avatar State can't keep the red stuff out because it's not fully back yet. Aang still blames himself for something that happened in Ba Sing Se, a failure that he's afraid of."

"Oh, Aang..." Katara breathed out as if her heart was breaking. "That wasn't your fault."

Aang's usual soft face grew hard. "Yes, it was. If I hadn't gotten shot with lightning, so many bad things wouldn't have happened. Like the invasion and your dad getting captured, or Sparky Sparky Boom Man."

"Combustion man!" Sokka interjected.

Katara ignored her brother and wrapped her arms around Aang's small, muscular shoulders. "Stop blaming yourself. If that hadn't happened, we wouldn't have been able to stop Hama from kidnapped all those people, or help the Painted Lady free that town."

"Or teach those stuck up Fire Nation kids how to dance!" Toph added.

"And... me." Zuko added. Everyone stopped and looked at him. "If you had won at Ba Sing Se, who knows where I'd be right now." He locked eyes with Aang and Percy felt like they didn't notice everyone else around them. "By not saving Ba Sing Se, you saved me." He continued. "I know I'm probably not worth as much as an entire Earth Kingdom city, but I fulfilled my destiny this way. Because you saved me, I can try to save the Fire Nation from destroying itself. I have my honour back and I'm on my way to finally getting some peace of mind."

Aang eyes filled with tears and he got up to his knees to pull Zuko into a hug. "I never thought about it that way. Ever since you've joined, all that stuff before where you wanted to capture me didn't matter. It was like you've been on the good side this whole time."

Zuko shook his head as he hugged Aang back. "No, but I was on my way."

They pulled away and Aang wiped his tears away. "I feel like I just opened up a hundred chakra's." He said jokingly, tears in his voice. "Ready to go home now?" He asked Percy.

Percy nodded vigorously. "You have no idea." He glanced at Pete who was standing off from the group a little, awkwardly shifting his weight from one foot to the other. "You ready to go home too?" He asked.

Pete shook his head. "Look man, uh, I was thinkin' while you were meditatin'... I don't really got a home back there and everything I do seems to just blow up in my face." He continued to shift his weight and shoved his hands deep into his pockets. "Maybe, uh, if they'll let me, I could stay here."

Percy was shocked into silence , along with everyone else.

"What?" He demanded. "You don't want to come home?"

Pete shrugged. "Look, I told ya. They don't really want me there."

Percy felt slightly betrayed. "I said I would help change that."

"Look, there are some thing's you can't change." Pete chewed his lip. "I could do some good here, maybe they'll listen to me, accept me. I can help stop all the terrible, terrible stuff that happenin' here. Ever since I got here it's been weighing on me, I can literally feel the weight of a One Hundred Year War on me. If I go away and don't try to help out, man, that'll eat me up until I die, man."

Percy felt like someone had knocked him over, but it was starting to make sense. "Well..."

"It's what I want." Pete said evenly. This wasn't an emotional decision. He had obviously though this through.

"What do you think?" Percy asked Aang.

The Avatar shrugged and looked at Zuko. "It more has to do with you."

Zuko was deep in thought. "With my Uncle leaving to settle down in Ba Sing Se, I could definitely use some extra wisdom and guidance." He cast a quick glance at Aang. "We don't want you to have to follow through with your promise*, now do we?"

Aang's eyes flickered downwards. "No." He said quietly.

"So..." Pete rocked on his feet. "Can I stay?"

"He's serious." Toph added. "This isn't some flitty decision. He's been thinking about it all day."

"How...?"

Toph shrugged. "Just trust me."

Percy ran his fingers through his hair and looked around at the faces of the group that had accepted him and made him feel at home as well as teaching him and being taught by him about life and love and war and hardships. They had all grown a little and were stronger because they had met. Maybe... Pete would do well here.

A son of Ares actively striving for peace and the greater good for a world that had been ripped apart by war and fighting. It was an oxymoron, to say the least, but maybe it was just crazy enough to work.

People will continue to surprise you. His mom used to say to him. Let them. Give them the benefit of the doubt. Let them have all the chances to be good.

"If you're sure." Aang said. "I don't think we'll be able to send you back if you regret this later. Fixing the walls seems pretty permanent."

Pete nodded. "Yeah, man, yeah. I'm sure. I feel really good about this."

Sokka stroked his chin. "It would make the Fire Nation clean up go a lot faster..."

"So it's settled?" Percy asked. He felt a little sad that it had to come to leaving the planet to get a happy ending for Pete, but that's just how life worked sometimes. "We just have to get Sparkles and then we can leave."

He's eyes met with Pete's and they stared steadily at each other. "You can change your mind at anytime before we leave." He reminded him. "And I'll do my best to get you welcomed back at camp."

Pete nodded. "Thanks, man."

Percy looked to Aang. "Let's do this, I guess."

Katara crashed into him and wrapped her arms tightly around his neck. Toph's small, sturdy body curled around his middle while Sokka just kind of enveloped the outside of the growing group hug.

Aang laughed and pulled Zuko in.

"C'mon, Pete!" They called. "You don't get to be alone anymore. Which means you have to join in the group hugs!"

He awkwardly joined.

Toph laughed and said something about his butterfly heart and they all laughed.

"I'll never forget you guys." Percy promised. He ruffled Toph hair and lightly punched Sokka. He gave Katara a one-armed hug and put Zuko in a headlock to mess up his hair.

He had to try it at least once. Just to see how the new Fire Lord would react.

Aang and Percy took their places and started meditating again. While the rest of the group drifted off, pretending they weren't as sad as they were to say goodbye to their new friend.

/./././././././././././././././././././././.

They got to the wall without any problems and Aang someone pulled Sparkles spirit from the ocean up to where they were.

The two boys hugged.

"You did good, Avatar." Percy said. "I mean it. Never forgot who you are and what kind of person you are. You'll be the best Avatar this world has ever seen."

"Thank you." Aang said. "I'm going to miss you, but your world needs you back. Thanks for everything."

Percy pulled out of the hug and gripped Aang's shoulders, almost too sad to say anything else.

And he stepped through the wall of light, an arm thrown over Sparkles neck and his head held high.

This demi-god was going home.

*The story of The Promise is told in the comic books! Basically, Zuko makes Aang promise to kill him if he ever starts becoming like his dad. It's a great story.

One more chapter, guys :) I love you all and am feeling SO EMOTIONAL.