Authors notes
I am changing up the order of the episodes a little. 0-0. I have a plan don't worry. I am so excited about this episode, enjoy!
Thanks to everyone who commented on the previous chapters it means a lot. XD
The team had traveled a few more days on their journey to get to the Northern water tribe. It had been rather boring since their time at Omashu. So today everyone seemed to be a little more lethargic than usual. Sokka was holding his boomerang in his hands, twirling it around. Katara was laying on her stomach, leaning over the lip bison saddle to gaze down at the clouded sky stretching beneath them. Aang was sitting back, half asleep as he held onto Appa's reins. And Danny was gazing down at his locket reminiscing about back home.
Within the left side of this locket was a photo of him and his two best friends, Sam and Tucker. All three of them were fooling around and laughing in the photo. Jazz had taken the photo when they weren't looking. He had been annoyed at first, but it was a nice photo anyway. He looked at the image of his two best friends laughing and was asking himself about how they were doing without him. Were they okay? Were they looking for him? Did they think he was dead? (Well, more dead than he already was.)
His eyes wandered over to the other side of the locket. That side held a photo of him and his family. His parents were wearing their normal vibrantly coloured hazmat suits, his mom with her hood down. Jazz was standing next to Danny with a teal book in her arms with a hopeful smile. Danny's dad was towering over everyone else in the photo with one hand on Maddie's shoulder and the other on Jazz's, while Danny stood in the middle.
He missed them. He wished he was home right now. Jazz scolding him about something or other, his mom cooking some food that somehow had come alive, his dad running around trying to catch said food with some new invention he'd come up with, and his best friends sitting with him laughing and making jokes. Danny smiled wistfully.
He even missed the ghosts. Sure, they fought all the time, and tried to kill him all the time, and… threatened him all the time. But still! They were part of his life, er… afterlife. They would stop mid-fight to ask Danny how his day was going. Skulker would give Danny self-defense tips in between shooting missiles at him. The Lunch Lady smashed him into a wall and invited him to her baby shower two minutes later.
Danny sighed, which caught Sokka's attention. Sokka glanced over at Danny, who was staring into the locket in his hand. It was a gold locket that had bright green highlights. It also had a gold chain that wrapped around his wrist. "Whatcha thinkin' about?" Sokka finally asked.
Danny was snapped out of his trance and closed the locket in his hand before looking up at the Water Tribe boy. "Home." He replied. Katara turned around and sat up, leaning against the saddle as she looked at the ghost.
"You hadn't really mentioned your home before," Katara pointed out, trailing off the end as if she was trying to get Danny to continue talking about it.
"Well, you wouldn't have heard of it." Danny shook his head, but when he looked back up he saw that the other three were still looking at him, waiting for more. He sighed. "I'm from a small town. There aren't that many people there. It's called Amity." He wasn't that worried about telling them this. They couldn't do much with this information; it was pretty basic stuff.
Sokka put his hand on his chin. "Hmm, never heard of it"
"I told you," Danny replied.
"Do you have any family there?" Katara asked, tilting her head.
"I had a sister, and my parents. And my two best friends; we did everything together." It kind of felt good to talk about them.
"Had?" Sokka questioned.
"Sokka!" Katara scolded her brother.
Danny put his hand up to stop Katara. "It's okay." He smiled and then turned his head back to face Sokka. "They're still alive. I just got separated from them recently, just before you guys found me."
Aang turned around. "I'm sure you'll be able to find them again."
Danny smiled at the boy. "Thanks."
The rest of the team were kind of surprised; this is the most that Danny had really talked about his past. If he had mentioned it before, it was always more vague or to himself. It seemed like he might finally be opening up to them. Maybe he hadn't trusted them before? Or just didn't want to talk about it?
Suddenly, Katara stood up and stepped forward. "What's that?" She asked, pointing out in front of them. Danny stood up as well, being careful of his side. They looked out to see what seemed like a blacked-out portion of land It seemed to go on for miles, edging the side of a river.
"It's like a scar," Sokka commented.
Aang pulled on Appa's reins, causing him to fly down closer to the ground. As they got closer, they could see that the blacked-out portion was a charred and burned forest. Thousands of trees were gone. Appa landed and the four of them got off to walk around.
Danny bent down and ran his fingers across the ground. When he brought his hand back up to look at it, his fingers were stained black with soot and ash. Sokka spoke up, glancing over at Danny's black-stained fingers. "It's so… quiet. There's no life anywhere."
Aang hugged his arm tightly and started to walk forward a bit. He took a deep breath as if he was trying to calm himself down. Katara walked over to Aang and put her hand on the boy's shoulder. "Aang, are you okay?"
Danny ambled over a bit and pointed out some tracks. "Sokka," he said quietly, trying to keep his voice down so Aang wouldn't hear. Sokka moved closer and scanned over the tracks. Sokka had seen ones like them before. They were made by Fire Nation boots and rhinos!
"The Fire Nation!" Sokka growled. "Those evil savages make me sick. They have no respect-" Sokka's rant was interrupted when Danny put his hand on the other boy's shoulder, squeezing lightly. Sokka glared at Danny. "What, I'm not allowed to be angry?!" He whisper-yelled. "You're the one who pointed it out." Danny didn't reply. He instead just gestured to Aang with a tilt of his head. The boy had knelt down on the ground with a sigh, running his hand through the ash.
"Why would anyone do this?" Aang asked, sadness in his voice. "How could I let this happen?"
Katara bent down next to Aang. "Aang, you didn't let this happen. It has nothing to do with you."
Aang shrugged her away. "Yes, it does." He started. "It's the Avatar's job to protect nature, but I don't know how to do my job."
"That's why we're going to the north pole: to find you a teacher," Katara said.
"Yeah. A water bending teacher." He sighed. "But there's no one to teach me how to be the Avatar. The monks said that Avatar Roku would help me learn those things."
"The Avatar before you? He died over a hundred years ago, how is he supposed to help you?" Sokka asked.
"I don't know." Momo curled up on Aang's lap, causing the boy to smile a bit.
Something caught Danny's eye. He turned around and kicked up some soot to see what was buried beneath. As soon as the small black cloud dissipated, Danny could see a small acorn. He bent down and picked it up, dusting off some of the ash.
Danny smiled at the small nut before turning around and walking over to Aang. "Hey, Aang. Look here." Danny tossed the acorn to Aang the moment the boy turned around. Aang quickly caught it out of the air before examining it himself.
"An acorn?" Aang questioned.
"They're everywhere around here. Look around." Everyone glanced around at the charred ground, and sure enough, there were tons of acorns scattered across the entire forest.
Katara's eyes brightened as she pulled Aang up off the ground. "Of course. Look here, Aang." She grabbed onto his hand with the acorn in it and held it up. "Every one of these small acorns will be a tall oak tree someday, and all the birds and animals will return."
Aang paused for a moment listening to what was said, a light smile spread across his face as he gazed down at the acorn in his palm. "Thanks, guys."
Suddenly, an elderly man came walking up from over the hill. Danny tensed and stepped in front of Sokka, as he was the closest person next to him. Danny was surprised he hadn't heard the man coming. Normally his instincts were better than this.
Sokka was kind of annoyed that Danny felt a need to protect him. He could protect himself, thank you very much. But there was a more burning question at hand. "Who are you?" Sokka asked, addressing the man.
The old man walked right past Danny and Sokka to face Aang. "When I saw the flying bison, I thought it was impossible, but those markings…" He touched the blue arrow tattoo on Aang's hand. "Are you the Avatar, child?" The man asked. Aang nodded hesitantly. "My village desperately needs your help."
X
The teens were led over the hill only to see a small Earth Kingdom village. Danny quickly noticed a couple of destroyed buildings on the edge of the down, not burned down, but smashed like a tornado had flown through that had somehow left the rest of the village untouched.
Danny could sense some sort of ghost or something had been through recently... If there was a ghost here, that could mean that he could get back to the Ghost Zone. And therefore his world!
They walked through the center of the village and straight into the biggest building at the end. "This young person is the Avatar", the man announced. There were about thirty people in the building; all chatting with one another or setting up temporary cots next to one another. All of them turned to look at the newcomers.
"So the rumors of your return are true." A man walked over to Aang and bowed. "It is the greatest honor of a lifetime to be in your presence."
Aang bowed his head. "Nice to meet you too", he said. "So, is there something you needed help with?"
The old man spoke up again. "For the last few days, at sunset, a spirit monster has come and attacked our village." Danny looked back out at the destruction caused to the houses. "He is Hei Bai, the black and white spirit."
Danny raised an eyebrow at the man. Spirits and ghosts didn't just attack for no reason at all. "Why is he attacking you?" He asked.
"We do not know, but each of the last three nights he has abducted some of our own. And we should be fearful, because the winter solstice will be here in 5 days' time", the man replied.
Katara tilted her head. "What happens then?"
"As the solstice nears, the natural world and the spirit world become closer and closer, until the line between them is blurred completely," the older man explained.
Danny's ears perked up. Did that mean that he could go home? Was this 'spirit world' the same as the Ghost Zone? Could this be his chance?
"Hei Bai is already causing devastation and destruction. Once the solstice is here, there is no telling what will happen!" The man exclaimed.
Aang stepped forward a bit. "So… What do you want me to do, exactly?"
"Who better to resolve a crisis than the Avatar himself?" The older man put his hand on Aang's shoulder. "You are the great bridge between man and spirits."
Aang looked down at the ground. "Right... That's me."
Katara walked over to Aang and tapped him on the shoulder. "Aang, can I talk to you over here for a second?" When Aang nodded she grabbed onto both Danny and Sokka's arms and yanked them after her. Sokka gave a yelp of protest, and Danny just turned to follow where she was dragging them. Sam did stuff like this all the time, so it didn't faze him.
Katara dragged the group over to the other side of the room. "You seem a little unsure about this." She said in a hushed tone.
"Yeah, that might be because I don't know a thing about the spirit world!" Aang whisper-yelled.
"How can you not know a thing about the spirit world? You're the avatar," Sokka questioned.
Aang threw his hands out to the side. "It's not like there's someone to teach me this stuff," he grumbled.
Katara spoke up. "Can you still help these people?"
"I have to try, right?" Aang said hopefully. "Maybe it will just come to me?"
"I believe in you, Aang," Katara said.
Sokka crossed his arms. "Yeah, we're all going to get eaten by a spirit monster." Danny chuckled.
X
It was nearly sunset. Aang picked up his staff from where it leaned against the wall and pushed open the swinging wood door. The rest of the team and the villagers watched from inside. Danny thought he should go out there and help, seeing as he had the most experience. But what could he do with this thing in his neck? Then again, maybe Hei Bai would listen to Danny, because of his halfa nature.
Aang called out to the air, seeming unsure. "Hello? Spirit? Can you hear me? This is the Avatar speaking. I'm here to try to help stuff."
Sokka turned to Danny and Katara. "This isn't right; we can't sit here and cower while Aang waits for some monster to show up."
"Some things he has to do on his own, Sokka," Danny said. "Maybe working with this Spirit will help him on his path as the Avatar."
Katara nodded to Danny. "He's right, Sokka. And I'm sure Aang can do this."
The sun finally set over the horizon, and the whole town fell into darkness. "Where are you, Hei Bai?" Aang called out. "Well, spirit, uh… I hereby ask you to leave this town in peace!" He planted his stick firmly on the ground. There was no sound coming from anywhere from the town. Aang turned around after a couple seconds of nothing. "Okay, well, I guess that's settled then."
Wind then brushed through the trees and throughout the village. The sounds of whispers filling the air, but not from the people in the building.
Suddenly, a blue puff of air escaped Danny's lips. The spirit was here. "This isn't over," Danny muttered. Sokka looked at Danny weirdly and then looked back out the window.
Suddenly, a six-legged, black-and-white-spotted creature with huge teeth flickered into existence. From the looks of it, it stood almost 50 feet tall. Danny assumed that it had either been invisible or just phasing through the spirit barrier into this world. It followed behind Aang until he noticed the large creature behind him.
Aang turned around, all smiles. "You must be the Hei Bai spirit! My name is—'' Before Aang could finish that sentence, the creature roared in his face and then sped off to crash into a building. "My name is Aang, I'm the avatar and I want to help!" Aang started running after the creature. "Hey wait up!"
The creature jumped onto a house, smashing it to pieces before teleporting over to a watchtower. Hei Bai didn't have eyes (it was strange), but for some reason, he still seemed to be able to tell where everything was. When the spirit opened his mouth, he released what looked to be a blue beam of light. It didn't look like an ectoblast to Danny, but it seemed to do the same amount of damage, practically incinerating the wood of the watchtower on contact.
Aang was running after the creature on foot, not doing anything as it destroyed more and more buildings. Danny was about ready to run out there himself if Aang waited any longer. One of the villagers walked up behind the teens, peering out the window over them. "The Avatar's methods are… unusual."
"The spirit doesn't seem too interested in what he's saying," Sokka added. He paused for a moment, thinking to himself. "Maybe we should go help him." Danny nodded, while Katara stayed silent.
The old man grabbed onto Sokka's shoulder and pulled him away from the window. "No. Only the Avatar stands a chance against Hei Bai." Danny scoffed inwardly, but then again without his powers, it would be much harder to fight something like this.
"Aang will figure out how to do the right thing," Katara said.
Danny shook his head. "Aang is either going to have to fight that thing, or find another way to reason with him. Because what he is doing is-'' Danny and the others cringed as another hut was destroyed by the spirit. "-Not working," he finished.
Aang ran by again as the creature teleported. "Please, will you stop destroying things and listen?!" He used airbending to jump on top of a roof. "Excuse me. But could you please turn around?" When that didn't work Aang sucked in a deep breath. "I command you to turn around now!" He yelled.
The area was filled with silence as the creature froze, one of its fists still in the air as it was punching the already smashed-up building. Suddenly, there was a loud growl and the creature spun around so fast that you could barely see it. The creature backhanded Aang, throwing him off the roof and he smashed into the ground.
Sokka leaped up and started running for the door. "That's it, he needs help!" Danny followed right behind Sokka, agreeing. Aang was going to get himself killed out there. There are times to be a pacifist, and there are times when you need to kick butt.
"Sokka, Danny, wait!" Katara yelled trying to grab onto Danny's shirt as he ran, only barely missing the black fabric. Katara was about to run after the boys when one of the men grabbed onto her.
"It's not safe out there. You will just get yourself killed," the man warned. Katara looked over to the door and then back to the man, before rushing back over to the window to see what was going on.
Sokka had run five feet from the building before it seemed Hei Bai teleported. Danny was still standing on the porch, listening to try and find out where the spirit would reappear. There was a whistling sound to the right of them. The moment Danny looked up he saw the creature flicker into existence.
The creature already had its fist raised and was ready to bring it down directly on Sokka. "Sokka!" Danny, Katara, and Aang all yelled. But Danny was the only one to take action. He ran and jumped from the step, just managing to knock him and Sokka out of the way as the huge, black-colored fist smashed into the ground with a thud.
Danny and Sokka rolled across the ground and Danny ended up on top of Sokka. Sokka looked up at Danny, surprise clear on his face. Danny realized, and quickly got off of Sokka.
The creature roared and used its hand to try and hit them. But the hand only hit Danny, and he was thrown against a wooden wall of one of the houses.
Sokka snapped back and quickly got up, throwing his boomerang at the creature to try and distract it long enough so that both Danny and Aang could get up. As soon as Sokka threw the boomerang, he started running. The creature started to follow Sokka until he was distracted by Aang.
Aang sped in front of him and started running around, trying to distract the spirit from Sokka. Hei Bai snarled and grabbed Aang, taking the boy by surprise. The creature held Aang in his hand at his -eye height?-. It looked as though the creature intended to burn Aang with his blue fire-breath.
Danny ran over to the other side of the road and started calling out to the creature. His hand clutching his side. "Hey, over here! Over here!" He waved his other hand in the air, trying to get its attention, but nothing worked. The creature just stared at Aang ready to blast him. Danny tried to think of what could possibly get the creature's attention when he finally got an idea. "ĉi tie!" He yelled.
The creature's head snapped to Danny at those words. Even if they were the same words he had been yelling moments ago, it was different. Danny had yelled in Esperanto. And he had gotten exactly the reaction he had wanted. The spirit dropped Aang and teleported over to Danny. Danny moved his hand down to his katana handle.
The spirit eyed the sheath wearily. Danny narrowed his eyes and didn't move a muscle. But he was suddenly distracted when Sokka ran towards the creature, wielding his club. While Danny was distracted thinking about Sokka, the spirit grabbed onto Danny with one hand, pinning Danny's arms to his side, rendering him unable to unsheath his katana. The creature then used one of his other hands to grab onto Sokka.
Sokka struggled and managed to get one of his hands-free. He tried to punch the creature, but nothing worked. Hei Bai took off running, both Sokka and Danny in hand. Danny could hear Katara yell as she ran out of the building. "Sokka! Danny!"
Aang grabbed onto his glider and took off flying after Hei Bai. With the rapid thumping of the spirit's running, it was hard to miss where he went. The creature began running through the forest until he reached the burned area where they had first landed. The creature turned towards some kind of statues that were placed in a circle. To Danny it looked like some kind of monument.
Aang flew down and tried to grab Sokka's free hand. But the moment he managed to brush Sokka's fingers, he, Danny, and Hei Bai disappeared in a flash of white and blue light.
X
"Ugh, what a headache." Were the first words that Danny heard when he felt himself come to his senses. Danny sat up and rubbed his eyes to get rid of the fuzzy vision that was blocking his sight. When he removed his hand he saw that it was Sokka who had made the comment.
Surprisingly, Danny didn't really feel a headache; sure, he was sore from his chip and, well, getting smashed into a building by a 50-foot tall spirit monster, but no headache. Danny put his hand down on the ground beneath him. It looked like brown dirt but when he touched it, it seemed to transform into brown grass. The grass would follow his hand as he traced a figure eight across the ground. It transformed back to dirt after about 5 seconds without a hand on it.
Danny glanced over to Sokka. He was laying back down on the ground with his hand rubbing on his temples. Danny looked under Sokka's arm and saw that the ground under him had changed to grass too. So it wasn't just Danny. Okay.
He stood up and looked at his surroundings. There were loads of trees scattered around with huge roots that seemed to make up 50% of the tree itself. Everything around the area looked to have an orange tint. It was strange. But the strangest part was it reminded him of the ghost zone… The ghost zone!
This place was like the ghost zone! This must be the spirit world that the others had talked about. But that also means that this isn't the ghost zone and he still has no way home. But maybe they are connected somehow? Danny could feel the spiritual energy in the air with his core. It was as if all the air had hints of ectoplasm in it. Way less than the ghost zone does. But way more than the human zone did.
Danny was knocked out of his thinking when he heard Sokka groan again. He spun around and held out a hand to the boy. Sokka took his hand off his head and used it to grab onto Danny's arm. Danny quickly pulled him up onto his feet. "We aren't in Kansas anymore," Danny commented.
Sokka looked at him with a raised eyebrow, Danny ignored him. Sokka stood for a moment staring at his surroundings taking it all in as Danny did. "What is this place?" Sokka asked.
Danny smiled at Sokka. "Okay, so we were taken by a spirit, who has come from the spirit world, who has been kidnapping people and taking them to the spirit world. So I will give you three guesses."
"We're in the spirit world?!" Sokka exclaimed.
"Now you got it." Danny grabbed onto Sokka's arm and yanked him away from the spot he was standing. "Let's go. We need to get back somehow."
"Where are we going?" Sokka asked. He was now following behind Danny.
"Somewhere other than here. A place like this might have portals that lead back to your world. If we go through one we can get back." Danny explained.
Sokka stopped when Danny kneeled down to the small stream of water flowing underneath the roots of one of the trees. "How would you know that?" Sokka crossed his arms.
Danny paused. "Books." He responded dryly. He put his hand into the water of the stream, and the water that touched his hand started to glow, and just like the grass it returned back to its normal colour shortly after.
Sokka crossed his arms. "Well, you can't always believe in those things." Sokka started walking in a separate direction. "Why am I following you anyway? Who put you in charge of being the spirit world guide." Sokka closed his eyes as he continued talking.
The next thing he knew he felt one of his feet slip in front of him and he was yanked back by his shirt. Sokka opened his eyes and yelped, he had almost walked off a small ridge about 20 feet high. "That's why." Danny said.
Danny turned back around before jumping over the creek. "Yeah, well…" Sokka started. Danny turned his head around to face him and raised an eyebrow. "-That was the way I was going to go in the first place." He also jumped across the creek, one of his feet falling into the shallow water making his foot wet. Danny rolled his eyes and continued walking.
X
It had been around five hours since Danny and Sokka had been taken to the spirit world. Both boys were now walking around snapping small enough branches from trees. They were planning on trying to make a fire. Danny didn't want to use too much wood from the trees, if this place was like the ghost zone this could be someone's haunt, or the trees could be alive themselves.
Sokka could care less when taking his branches. He had twice as many as Danny had when they went back to the area that they were 'camping' at. Sokka threw the sticks into a pile in the middle of the ground. Danny on the other hand put his sticks off to the side to save them for later.
The spirit world seemed to be the perfect temperature for Danny. But he wasn't so sure about Sokka. Sokka had shivers every once and a while. Danny wasn't sure if it was his core making Sokka cold, or the spirit world itself.
Danny walked over and picked up two grayish color rocks and went back to the sticks in the middle. He started striking them together hoping this would work. He saw it work in movies, so maybe?
"What are you doing?" Sokka asked, his tone made it sound like Danny was crazy.
Danny put the rocks down on the dirt (grass). He looked up at Sokka with a deadpan look on his face. "Trying to start a fire."
"Well, have you ever started a fire like that before?"
"No."
Sokka groaned, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a sharp dark gray rock. "Here let me do it." He pushed Danny out of the way and grabbed onto his boomerang that was still somehow with him. "You will get nowhere with those rocks. See, you need a special kind of rock, and it helps to have some metal with you." He struck his boomerang and the black rock together for a couple seconds until orange sparks started to fly off of it.
The spark jumped onto one of the sticks and there was a small bit of smoke that floated into the air. Sokka bent down and blew on it lightly until it became a small flame. Sokka smiled smugly at Danny. Now Danny wished he paid more attention on those father-son camping trips.
Sokka sat back as he watched the sticks start to burn more. "How do you not know how to start a fire?" He asked.
Danny chuckled. "I'm great at fighting, but ask me to survive outdoors for a day. Yeah, no."
Sokka raised an eyebrow. "Were you really rich or something?"
"No, it was just really... different where I am from. We don't really need to start campfires." Danny laid on his back looking up at the 'sky?', while Sokka stayed sitting, legs crossed.
This seemed like a normal conversation to Danny, but for Sokka, it was adding more to his suspicion that Danny might be a fire bender. But if Danny was a fire bender, how would he get a burn scar. But then again, Zuko also had a burn scar. That once again leads to the question, what nation was he from? And can they trust him?
After about 30 minutes of complete silence Sokka was surprised when Danny jumped into the air and looked around frantically. Sokka was about to say something when Danny made a shushing motion with his hand. Sokka quickly got to his feet and looked around as well, seeing nothing.
Suddenly from around the corner out walked two spirits who were having a conversation. They were both about 6 feet tall. They were mostly covered in brown and purple fur and had a human-like silhouette with a longer face and bright yellow slit eyes. They both had very large pointy ears and were both wearing necklaces covered in teeth.
Danny stepped back and Sokka gulped while the spirits were frozen in their tracks. They looked the humans up and down before speaking. "Humans." One of them scoffed. "What would things like you be doing in the spirit world?"
"Lost are we?" The other asked in a snarky tone.
Sokka pulled out his boomerang. "I would stay back if I were you," Sokka warned, his voice sounded shaky.
Both spirits laughed. "eble ni manĝu ilin." (Maybe we should eat them.) The second one joked.
The first one shook his head and smiled, placing his really long sharp finger on his chin. "ne, ili estas multe tro magraj. ili ne bongustos." (No, they are much too scrawny. They won't taste good.)
The second one chuckled again. "Tiam kion ni faras?" (Then what do we do?)
Danny crossed his arms. "Eble eksciu, ĉu unu el ili unue scias paroli esporonton." (Maybe find out if one of them knows how to speak Esperanto first.) Danny smirked at their dumbfounded faces.
Sokka spun to Danny. "You speak another language!?" He exclaimed. Danny nodded and held up his hand to stop the inevitable rant that was about to insue from the water tribe boy.
It took a second for the creatures to stop stammering over their words. "se vi ne ĝenos, mi kaj mia amiko foriros." (If you don't mind, my friend and I were just leaving.) Danny said as he gestured to Sokka.
"Hey, are you guys talking about me?" Sokka asked. Danny ignored him.
"Kio do estas la direkto al la elirejo?" (So which way is the exit?) Danny asked with a cocky smile.
The creatures looked back and forth between each other. The second one spoke up first. "There are not many exits here. Your best bet is going back the way you came." They switched back to English, and their ears fell back.
Danny nodded. "Thanks then. Nice meeting you." Danny quickly flashed his ecto green eyes at them before turning around to look back at Sokka. The Spirits jumped slightly and sped away not knowing what to do.
It was a bit easier to use his powers for a small show like changing his eyes. It still hurt a bit though. But it was worth it to see the looks on their faces.
Danny and Sokka stepped back, completely forgetting about keeping their eyes on the fire, Danny laid down on the ground and closed his eyes. He and Sokka probably stayed there for a solid 20 minutes. "Since when do you know another language?" Sokka asked.
"Since a year ago." Danny rolled his head back. "I had a friend that could only speak Esperanto. So my friends and I learned it so we can talk with him. We were also teaching him this language as well." Danny didn't want to say English because he had no idea what this language was called here.
"Then why were those spirits speaking it?"
"Because Esperanto is a very common language for spirits and ghosts. It's sort of like hard-wired into their brain when they become a spirit. I don't know how to explain it." Danny said. "Okay back to the part about getting out of here. It seems like the only way to get out is by Hei Bai taking us back somehow."
Sokka froze, he was looking behind Danny. "Or maybe with some magically appearing bamboo?"
Danny quickly sat up to look where Sokka was staring. Sure enough, there was some magic bamboo materializing out of nothing. When Danny listened closely to the bamboo he heard Aang's voice on the other side. This was their way out! Aang must have done something. "This is the exit we needed."
Both Danny and Sokka started walking into the bamboo. Danny quickly turned around and used his core to create a small bit of frost that coated the campfire, preventing the fire from spreading after they left.
Both Danny and Sokka pushed through the bamboo, they eventually started hearing footsteps next to them. Danny saw the arm of a guy push past next to them. This must be the villagers that were also taken. They must have found this way out too. That's good. Danny was worried that they wouldn't make it out as well and they would have to find some way to get back there and find the people.
Danny was careful to listen for other people in the spirit world the whole time they were there. But he didn't find any of them.
It seems that Sokka had found the way out because he stumbled forward out of the bamboo when he had no more to push past. "Sokka!" Katara cried out. Danny pushed past the last piece of bamboo to see Sokka get smothered in a hug by his little sister. He smiled.
But all of a sudden, Katara stopped hugging Sokka and pulled Danny into a hug. "Danny, I am glad you are safe too." She said. Danny smiled and patted her back with his scarred hand. He was not expecting her to be that worried about him, they had only known each other for about a week and he was unconscious for half of that.
A bunch of the other villagers ran out to be with their loved ones who had also gone missing. Danny could hear that some of them were complaining of headaches again, including Sokka. Katara turned back towards Sokka. "You guys were trapped in the spirit world for twenty-four hours. How do you feel?"
"Like it wasn't twenty-four hours," Sokka said.
Danny nodded. "More like six."
Aang sped over. "Time must be different in the spirit world than our world. My trip felt much shorter than it was."
Katara hugged Aang which made the boy blush slightly. "I am so proud of you Aang. You figured out how to fix this all on your own."
Aang fell cross-legged onto the dirt with a thump, he placed his staff across his lap. "Actually I did have a little help." He paused. "And there's something else."
"What is it?" Danny asked. He could see how uneasy Aang was getting.
"Well, I need to talk to Avatar Roku, it's important like the world ending is important. And I think I found a way to contact his spirit." Aang explained. But it didn't sound like he finished the whole thing.
"That's great, Aang," Katara said.
Sokka chimed in. "Creepy, but great." He was once again rubbing his head.
"There is a temple on a crescent-shaped island, and If I go there on the solstice I will be able to speak with him."
"The solstice in four days solstice?" Sokka questioned.
"Yeah and there's one other problem. It's in the fire nation." Sokka, Katara, and a couple of the other villagers who were listening in gasped. Danny was annoyed that the villagers were eavesdropping but that didn't matter right now.
Danny pulled Aang to his feet. "What do you mean by world-ending important?" He asked wearily.
"I was given a vision, there is a comet coming. And it is crucial that I talk to Roku about it." Aang explained. Danny nodded, sometimes he wished that he had magical visions that told him what to do instead of him having to figure it out for himself.
"So we need to go into the fire nation, the home of the people we are trying to avoid. Just to talk to some weird magical spirit?" Sokka asked.
"A past avatar." Katara corrected.
The man from before walked up to them. "If you are going to make it to the fire nation in time, you would need to leave immediately." The man warned. "We can give you food and supplies that you would need on your journey."
Aang bowed his head. "Thank you for your kindness."
X
It had been about two hours. They had just finished getting all the food and supplies ready on Appa's saddle for their journey. The villagers wished them good luck as the teens started walking to the bison, Katara and Aang were already on his back while Sokka was climbing up. Danny was about to put his foot up when suddenly he froze, listening. "They're here." He muttered.
"Who's here?" Katara asked, she was whipping her head around to see.
Danny narrowed his eyes. "Zuko and the sparky fingers gang."
"Zuko's here!" Sokka exclaimed. "How did he find us?"
Suddenly Zuko and five of his men rode into the village on their fire rhinos. "We're here for the avatar!" Zuko yelled.
One of the villagers called out to the teens. "You need to get out of here now!"
Danny turned his head. "Are you sure you will be alright?"
"Just go!"
Danny nodded and started climbing onto Appa as the bison started flying up. "They're escaping!" One of the soldiers yelled.
Just as Appa was flying overhead of the fire nation soldiers, Danny heard chains rattling. Sokka reached out to grab Danny's arm to pull him up the rest of the way. Suddenly Danny felt a chain wrap around his waist and he was yanked with brute force just before Sokka could grab him.
Danny was smashed into the ground. "Danny!" All three yelled. Aang started to pull Appa around to get Danny back. But Zuko and a couple of the other fire benders started shooting a wall of fire at them. Appa growled and flew back a bit.
Danny had to think carefully of the situation. Aang needed to get to that island. They had nearly no time to get there. If not there will be a terrible outcome. "Go without me!" Danny yelled. It was hard to get the words out as he was winded.
"We can't!" Aang yelled back.
"I'll be fine!"
Sokka turned to the others. "As much as I hate it. Danny's right. If we miss the solstice you will have to wait another year. We don't have the time. We can come back for Danny after."
Aang bit his lip. "Don't worry Danny, We will come back for you, I promise!" Aang yelled. Aang steered Appa away from the fire and they started flying away.
Danny laid his head back in the dirt. His body was in so much pain. He was used to being thrown into the ground like he was but, without his powers, it hurt way more. His vision was starting to get dark and the last thing he saw was Zuko's face standing above him. Here we go.
Authors notes
Danny is in the hands of Zuko and the fire nation! What will happen next? 0-0
We also got to see what happened on Sokka's trip to the spirit world! This was so fun to write. Thanks all for reading. And special thanks to 'watery_melon_baller' on Ao3. Who betta read this chapter.
Some people were getting mad at me for following the episodes too closely. I am sorry, I am trying my best to make them more unique and adding extra insight and other sides to the stories. I also have at least 6 new characters already planned out with backstories, arcs, and everything. And trust me guys, they're good! I am so excited to introduce them in future episodes and brand new chapters. I have a lot of original chapters coming out. And you can assume with Danny being captured that there will be a lot more original content coming up. XD. I am so excited. Once again sorry if you are finding it boring or too similar to the original show. I am trying my best to make a great and enjoyable story.