(grins)

I was hoping you'd post, Katie! Thanks again! And thanks, WONDERBANG, eXtraNIo, everybody!

I'm a little surprised nobody said anything about Sokka's derring-do with rocking an Earthbender, or how Katara went from having one bag of water to a whole sewer's worth, but… eh. XD

So where do we go from here? Toward the end, of course.

Chapter 38. And thanks again, everybody.

Chapter Thirty-Eight:
One Last Task

The Dai Li's covert takeover made for a lot of housecleaning on the Earth Kingdom's part, but the Gaang felt it was something the Earth Regent could handle on her own.

Most of the Gaang, anyway.

"I'm still just a little concerned that we aren't more actively involved in the cleanup," Sokka said, his arms folded.

"Sokka." Katara smiled. "That's silly! She has all the resources of the Earth Kingdom available. I'm sure she can handle this."

"Yeah," Aang chimed in from atop Appa's head. "And we took care of Long Feng."

"And the Dai Li," added Katara.

"Yeah, well, we thought we took care of Long Feng last time," Sokka replied. "Look what happened! And for that matter, I'm really surprised you didn't do something about him."

"Do what?" asked Aang.

"To whom?" added Katara.

"To Long Feng!" Sokka gestured. "You know—really take care of him."

"Sokka…" Aang let go of the reins and turned around. "I didn't kill Long Feng for the same reason I didn't kill Ozai."

"Yeah, yeah, I kinda figured. But why didn't you—oh, I don't know—take away his bending the way you took away Ozai's?"

"Because Ozai wasn't as big a threat without his bending." Aang looked at Sokka intently. "The most dangerous thing about Long Feng isn't his bending—it's his mind. His ability to organize, to plan, to plot. He managed to make the whole Dai Li loyal to him, and no one knew about it for years!"

Sokka spread his arms. "All the more reason to take him out! He's gonna break free again!"

"Sokka—"

"I know, I know… you don't kill people like that."

"That's—right." Aang nodded. Seeing Sokka had nothing further to say on that point, Aang turned back around to the front. "Besides… what the Earth Regent has in mind for him should take care of any problems."

"Yeah," Sokka grumbled. "Should."

Aang looked back over his shoulder, but Sokka was pointedly looking somewhere else.

o o o

The Gaang went back to keeping the peace in the Liberated areas, and happily they weren't needed as much as they used to be. There were disturbances and incidents and the occasional quarrel that needed sorting out, but things seemed to be settling down.

News also trickled eastward that Azula was free once again—and even more surprisingly, she was acting at Zuko's command in the Fire Nation Colonies. That news was decidedly un-settling, but things seemed to be quieting down in the Colonies as well, so the Gaang found no need to get involved… for the time being.

Aang continued to train Miyong in Airbending and in the ways of the Air Nomads. Every day Aang put Miyong through his paces, drilling the basic techniques, then enlarging on those when Miyong had a handle on them. Every night Aang codified his techniques, putting down on paper what had been second nature to him for years. It wasn't easy. Expressing something in words or in drawings what his body knew through movement and feeling seemed… mechanical.

Eventually Aang remembered that regimented drill wasn't the way of the Air Nomads at all. There were times of practice and training, yes, but he had learned the most through living as an Airbender, using his Airbending as a part of what he did every day. He could teach Miyong by showing him how to live as an Airbender: how to run with air-light speed, how to fly up stairs and walls, how to Airbend doors open and closed, how to live with the wind as a part of life.

Once that was done, Aang and Miyong started to make real progress. Sokka got in the way of doors a few times. Or vice versa. Toph took notes for future reference.

Aang had to chuckle at himself. Maybe Toph's training in Earth and Zuko's training in Fire had influenced how he had been training Miyong in Air.

In the course of training Miyong, though, Aang got to thinking more and more about the one who had shown him how to live with the wind. His gentle humor… his deft touch with Aircakes… how he always managed to turn things so that every problem had a solution… everything he had taught and shown Aang to make him who he was.

That made Aang realize there was one more task to perform.

One day, he approached Miyong with a sad smile on his face.

"I just realized there's something we need to do. I meant to do it as soon as we had time, but well, you know how that is."

"What is it?"

"We need to go to the Southern Air Temple. There's someone I need to take care of."

o o o

And so, with due notice given to the Earth Regent and to the Fire Lord, the Gaang left for the Southern Air Temple. They took their time getting there, Aang letting Appa pick his own pace; he thought a lot on the journey south, about what was needed and how he would do it.

He also told Miyong about Gyatso, his old master; how Gyatso had trained him, how he had grown up… how things had been before the war.

Eventually the towers of the Temple came into sight. Aang had raised their altitude gently on the way in, for the sake of Miyong and his parents—although Aang figured Miyong would have liked the sudden rush up that the Gaang had done the last time they were here.

"The Southern Air Temple." Miyong's father shook his head. "I never thought I'd see Ba Sing Se, let alone the Earth Palace. And now here I am, seeing this."

Aang looked over his shoulder and smiled. "I'm glad you like it. This was the first place I called home."

They landed and found rooms in the Temple's empty halls. The Temple had seen another year of weather and wind, but it wasn't too different from the last time the Gaang had seen it.

"Have you ever thought about making this your home again?" Katara asked. "You know… this or one of the other Air Temples?"

"I have," Aang replied. "But we're needed so much now, we're always on the move. I think it'd be better to save that for later. That, and after Long Feng, well…"

Katara nodded and squeezed his hand.

They set to the task at hand.

They went to the shed where Gyatso lay. Miyong and his parents gasped at the sight; Miyong even recoiled a bit.

Aang held out his hand in the skeleton's direction. "Miyong, this is my master, Gyatso. I told you about what happened on the way here. Today, we'll say goodbye to him."

They gathered wood from around the Temple and set it on the pyre, a special outcrop of rock where the air currents blew away from the Temple. They then gathered Gyatso's remains, cradling them gently in a blanket, and set them on the pyre.

"Do you have to burn him, Sifu?" Miyong asked. "I mean, he died because of fire, so it seems kind of… you know."

"Yeah, that's true." Aang smiled sadly. "But Gyatso told me once why we do it this way. See… our bodies have all of the Four Elements inside us: Water… Earth… Fire… and Air. When we do this, the pyre will burn everything else away, and his ashes will be lifted into the air, so he can become one with it." He shrugged. "I mean, he's one with it already, of course, but… it's just what we do."

Miyong shrugged and smiled. "Whatever you say, Sifu Aang."

Aang cocked a wry eyebrow. "That's not what you said about your hair."

"Well, that was my hair. That's different."

Aang smiled and nodded. "Uh-huh."

Aang and Miyong went back inside the Temple, the rest following. Once there, Aang kindled a fire on the hearth using flint and steel. When the fire was going well, Aang took a long, thin stick and put it in the fire. After a while, he took it out, and used the burning stick to light the taper of a lantern. The lantern glowed, sending light out through Air Nomad swirls cut in the plain gray sides.

Together the party walked back to the pyre with the lantern, everyone matching Aang's slow pace. Katara kept looking at Aang, concerned, but… Aang seemed at peace. She wanted to hold him… but she didn't want to disturb him or interrupt what he was doing. She knew this ceremony was part catharsis, bringing closure to everything that had happened… and part giving Aang the chance to say goodbye. A proper goodbye this time, not like before… and also, a proper goodbye for Gyatso himself.

They stopped at the pyre.

"I know there were some words they used to say, but I don't remember what they were," said Aang.

Katara slipped her hand into his. "I think they'd be okay with it if you said your own."

Aang turned and smiled. Then he gave her hand a squeeze and let go. He walked forward.

"Gyatso… I wanted to say thank you. Thank you for teaching me, for being there for me… I'm sorry… I'm sorry I wasn't there, I—"

Tears came to his eyes. Why the words wouldn't come now when he'd been thinking about it all the way down to the Southern Air Temple… the time when he could finally say what he had meant to say...

He hung his head.

Then he felt Katara's hand slip into his again. And a gentle squeeze.

Past and present.

He squeezed back, and turned his attention back to Gyatso.

"If it weren't for you," Aang said, more steady now," I wouldn't be who I am. And I wouldn't be where I am, either. Thank you…"

Katara smiled at him, tears in her eyes. She turned to the pyre. "Thank you, Gyatso. Thank you for everything."

Silence, except for the wind.

Katara let it be a moment, then squeezed Aang's hand. "Are you ready?"

Aang took a moment to answer. His voice was thick. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm ready."

He let go of Katara's hand. He set the lantern down, then picked up another long thin stick and placed it in the flame. When it was lit, he drew it out and guarded the flame on the way to the pyre.

He lit the kindling.

The fire took its time to grow, slowly working its way out. Later Aang would think that at that moment, he could have helped things along. He could have bent Fire to light the pyre itself. He could have bent Air to speed the fire along. The Air Nomads of old, though, did none of these things, even the Avatars among them in their time. The fire itself was kindled; the air flowed naturally from the mountainside. This, too, was simply what they did.

The wind caught the flame, and it sped through the pyre in a rush. Soon the whole pyre was a mass of roaring flame, snapping and crackling in the winds of the mountain. Earth was rent from water, from fire, from air, and ashes floated on the wind.

Aang came back to Katara and put his arm around her shoulders, something that wouldn't have been so easy a few months before. She put his arm around his waist, and they hugged, side by side. Tears ran down Aang's face, but he was smiling, wistfully.

Something caught his eye.

He looked up. Just for a moment, among the ashes he saw a mustachioed smiling face, smiling to him one last time.

Aang smiled.