Disclaimer: I don't own AtLA.

A holmgang ("holm-going") was a Scandinavian honour duel in the Viking Age. I just took the name and adapted it for the Coalition.

Btw, forgot to mention it in the last AN: Aziz, the name of the OC first Earth Avatar means "powerful and beloved" in Arabic. Fitting for an Avatar.

And finally, here is part 3, the final part of the Western Air Temple!

Read, enjoy and review!

Warning for descriptions of genocide/child murder/child abuse (non-graphic)

Chapter Seven

The Western Air Temple Part 3

Coalition Base: Hanno'wu, Fire Islands Coalition Territory:

Although the fact was not well-known save by some historians, the holmgang had originally been inspired by the Fire Nation's old Agni Kai duels, though said ritual had fallen out of favour in the later years of Kuruk's time after it peaked in use (and in deaths), with the smallest slight, intentional or not, causing challenges to be issued and the Avatar demanded that a 'no killing' rule be implemented. Seeing as the reason for so many deaths was to kill rivals, the practice fell out of use.

Holmgangs were similar, in that they were duels for defending one's honour. The old Fire Nation had put more importance on the concept, but all people had their pride. Many had nothing else.

The duel was fought on waterbending-created icebergs at midnight, when the moon was at its' zenith. The duellists had bare feet and wore nothing above their waists and had warpaint on their faces and symbols for strength, luck, swiftness and the like painted in blue on their torsos and arms. Only a single weapon was allowed, counting waterbending, and the chosen weapon had to be announced at the beginning of the fight. If one did not arrive in time, the duellist who did appear was granted victory and vindication. Although not a requirement, it was typically a fight to the death. Once the challenge had been issued, the challenger and challenged were both given three nights to arrive (though fighting during daylight was not a true holmgang). Should one not appear, the one who did come was named victor by default.

Kaito had already decided on waterbending as his chosen weapon. Pakku had tried to dissuade him, suggesting he use his spear instead, claiming that in a waterbending battle, Gilak outclassed him. That was true, but it was unacceptable for the Prince of the Water Coalition to be better with the weapon of a non-bender than bending. Non-benders from the Water Coalition were second-class citizens at best, and non-benders from the other nations were considered worth less than dirt. At least you could grow food in the dirt, after all. Kaito could not become known for being a spear fighter instead of a bender. He was enough of a failure in his father's eyes already.

In truth, the prince was regretting his rash demand even as a servant with Fire Nation eyes and a collar locked around his neck, expression blank and eyes down ('slave', his mother's mental voice corrected him again) painted the symbols on his chest. Unfortunately, despite his mentor's best efforts, Kaito had a fierce temper and was quick to act, while being slow to think through the possible consequences of his actions. Gilak's actions had been a great insult, that was true, but the older man severely outclassed him in skill and experience. Kaito would be shamed if he tried to back out of the holmgang, but he would shamed should he lose the fight also. It was a no-win situation.

"Remember your basics," Pakku instructed him strictly. "Do not attempt to control the water. Use it to your advantage, convince it to work with you. Guide it, do not try to force it."

Kaito gave a curt nod, trying to hide his anxiousness. They strode out and Pakku stayed on the shore while his pupil continued out onto the iceberg where his opponent and an angakkuq were waiting. Gilak said nothing to the prince, not even nodding in greeting, and they both knelt before the angakkuq.

The aged man drew Anningan's symbol on their foreheads in blood from whatever animal (Kaito had heard rumours about some prisoners being sacrificed for the blessing on the ritual, but he refused to believe it. His people would not do that.) he had previously sacrificed, calling to the Great Spirit Anningan to watch over the fight and grant victory to whoever's cause was just. That done, he split the iceberg in three, leaving each of them with a moving pedestal before returning to shore to watch along with the rest of the gathered crowd.

Then Kaito was facing Gilak, water swirling around his arms as he readied himself for the fight.

"Surrender now, Prince Kaito," the chief urged in an indifferent drawl. "You know that you cannot win. You do not have the strength of a warrior, you have too much of a woman's heart. Your healing skill proves it."

Kaito scowled at the insult, clenching his fists.

"Remember what you have learned, Prince Kaito," Pakku murmured, only barely loud enough to be audible.

"I am a worthy prince of the Water Coalition," Kaito insisted. "And I will prove it!" He lashed a water whip at his opponent, who turned it to ice and shattered it with casual, arrogant ease.

Gilak blew out a breath of ice and turned it into a dozen tiny, lethal darts. Kaito hastily created an ice wall to protect himself, then sent an ice dagger back. Again, Gilak easily destroyed it, but Kaito managed to create an ice column that knocked Gilak off his feet, causing his head to bleed after slamming harshly against the hard-packed ice. Gilak snarled and a waterspout sent him back to his feet, eyes flashing with fury. The man was old, but he had fought many battles and remained a skilled combatant.

"You will pay for that," Gilak hissed. He sent an ice dagger at Kaito, who made it change back into regular water just before it could hit him, before creating an ice spear. Kaito was about to throw the weapon at his adversary when Gilak seized the upper hand. He changed the ice beneath the prince's feet to water, and Kaito began sinking. Before Kaito could react, Gilak had once again changed the state of the water back to ice, leaving the prince trapped at the waist, his arms also stuck in place and leaving him unable to bend.

Gilak stalked over to him, a sneer on his face and a spear of ice in his hand that he pressed against the young man's throat. "You are weak," he hissed, leaning down to glare at Kaito. "I would say weak as a woman, but I have seen women thrice as strong as you. Your softness is why you will never be anything more than a failure of a prince, and a failure of a son. You will never succeed in capturing the Avatar, and the emperor will never accept you back."

Kaito glared up at him and spat in his eye bitterly. "You are wrong," Kaito insisted, suppressing a tremble. "And I will prove it!"

Gilak snarled but straightened, withdrawing the spear from Kaito's neck and letting it dissolve. "I will let you live, Prince Kaito, because I will enjoy letting your father see just how much of a weakling you truly are." He turned and stalked off, leaving the prince stuck and humiliated.

Pakku came up, a neutral expression on his face, and freed his student. "You did well," the old waterbender told his prince, helping him scramble up.

"I lost," Kaito replied bitterly.

"You fought well and honourably," Pakku insisted. "But Gilak is a master bender, and you are not. When you have mastered water, you will dwarf him in skill."

"If I cannot even defeat Gilak, how will I ever manage to defeat the Avatar?" Kaito wondered hopelessly, his anger fading to be replaced by helplessness as they began heading for the new ship. The new ship to replace his old one, yet another blow to his manhood and dignity.

Pakku sighed and rested a hand on his shoulder. "Trust in the Spirits, boy," he urged. "They will guide you to the right path. Even if that path is not obvious at first."

Kaito clenched his jaw and didn't respond. Trust the Spirits? Hah, why would he do that? They had never helped him, so why should he bother?

Western Air Temple:

"It's the Avatar State!" Azula yelled at her brother over the raging winds. "Seeing Kelsang's body must have been the last straw!" Agni knew that Azula had nearly burned the house down after seeing her parents' bodies that day, and she'd still had her brother and uncle and, at the time, her aunt as well.

"We need to calm her down before she blows us off the damn mountain!" Zuko cried back.

"If you have an idea, please brother, say it!"

Zuko turned determinedly to the glowing Avatar, raising his voice as much as he could. "Anji! I can't say I know how it feels to lose everyone, but I do know grief! Our parents, our cousin and several others in the village were all murdered by the Coalition! Our Aunt Minako wasted away from the grief of losing her only child! I know it feels like you have nobody left! But you're not alone, Anji! Azula and I, we're your family now! You said blood is irrelevant to the Air Nomads, well when it comes to us it doesn't matter either! You're as much my sister as Azula is now, and Uncle will embrace you like a daughter when we introduce you! You're not alone Anji, I swear!"

"Me too!" Azula cried. "We won't leave you, Anji! The three of us, we'll get you the masters you need, and then you'll become fully realized and stop the war! We'll help you, and then nobody will ever feel the hurt of the Coalition massacring their families like us again!"

Anji had gradually started to float towards the ground as they yelled to her, the light fading and the winds buffeting them slowly dying. Finally, it ceased completely, and she turned to them with a devastated look in her still-glowing eyes that only a waterbender with their hearts of ice wouldn't be heartbroken by.

"Everyone is dead, and it's all my fault," she whispered, her voice overlaid with multiple others, giving it a strange echo.

"It's not," Azula declared fiercely. She and her brother released their grips on the columns and went over to their friend, whose eyes had at last stopped glowing. "It is not your fault, Anji. The only people to blame for this is the Coalition."

"Azula is right," Zuko agreed, wrapping an arm around Anji, who curled into him, body shaking with quiet sobs. "Don't dissolve them of any bit of blame by taking it on yourself. You did all you could. They're the butchers who had no qualms murdering infants and pacifists to get to a teenage girl, all to prevent the Avatar stopping them from terrorizing the world. They do not deserve any absolution. Put the blame where it belongs. On the Water Coalition."

"I will stop them," Anji breathed, her voice muffled by her having buried her head in his shoulder. Azula had a hand on Anji's back, rubbing soothing circles into it. "I swear, I will stop this war if it's all I ever do in this incarnation."

"We will," Azula agreed, emphasizing the 'we'. "You are not alone, Anji. We'll do this together."

"Together," Zuko affirmed. Anji gave them a grimace she probably intended to be a smile, but the naked grief in her eyes was too raw to manage it.

"I need to give them last rites," Anji breathed. "I know it'll delay us, and we need to hurry, but I can't-I can't go and leave them like this."

"Alright," Azula acquiesced. It would delay them, but it was clear that the other girl needed this, her heartbreak when she glanced back at her guardian's remains obvious. Not giving them last rites and thus leaving their spirits lost, unable to reach Yaoma's realm for their eternal rest, would surely destroy her from the guilt. "Tell us how we can help."

It took almost two days for the trio to gather all the bodies and prepare them for Anji to give them their final rites, the Air Nomads following the ritual Anji called jhator. Azula and Zuko retrieved the children's and babies' bodies to spare Anji, and they were both sick afterwards. Many bodies of nuns were crumbled before the cradles, killed in futile attempts to shield the infants from a brutal death. They both knew the images would haunt them for a long time. Probably the rest of their lives.

There were so many bones that they were all burned in one large bonfire Anji and Azula created while Anji chanted some sort of "death poem" in the whistling tongue of the Nomads, before she mixed the ashes into a dozen pies and left them out for birds to eat, explaining that the Air Nomads believed it let their spirits become fused with the birds to fly to the afterlife. After that, they buried Jianzhu by hand after wrapping his body in a white blanket they managed to scourge, Anji again speaking a chant, this time in an Earth Kingdom dialect she said was Gan Jinese, his native province. Her voice was overlaid with her predecessors'. It was strange to hear, but they were adjusting to it quickly. Finally, they finished with Hei-Ran, burning her and scattering her ashes in the winds. Zuko said the chant this time to give Anji's hoarse voice a chance for rest, recalling it from the funerals they had attended growing up, of which there were many.

It was exhausting, and Anji no longer bothered trying to stem the flow of her tears, though they were silent as they fell freely down her cheeks. But it seemed like a weight had eased on her shoulders by the time it was over.

After that, the Fire siblings waited in the courtyard on the Avatar's request, while Anji silently gathered various things she thought might help or had value to either she herself or to her people as well as fruit and vegetables from the overgrown but miraculously intact gardens. She came back on hearing her friends' calls, the tiniest ghost of a smile on her lips, with a lemur-bat she said she was calling Momo around her neck like a scarf. Neither of them asked any questions, simply accepting Momo's presence. They finally flew away as the sun was setting, none of them wanting to stay in the ruined temple any longer than necessary.

They reached the nearest island within an hour of leaving the Western Temple, and Anji landed them atop a mountain, where they quickly set up a campfire and the tent Anji had taken from the temple, big enough for the three of them. Anji, on Kyoshi's advice (the last Earth Avatar having spent her first year as acknowledged Avatar on the run from a bending and politically powerful madman with a group of daofei and her bodyguard, later lover, Rangi of Clan Sei'naka) brought up setting up a watch.

"I can go first," she offered. "I don't sleep much, anyway. Part of being the Avatar."

Azula wrinkled her nose. "I never thought of that," she mused thoughtfully. "As a firebender you get energy from the sun, and a waterbender gets it from the moon. As you're both, it makes sense you would have trouble resting."

"Yes," Anji confirmed. "And I also get visions. Strong ones. And memories of my past lives. I usually only sleep at most four hours per night."

"That sucks," Zuko grimaced. He was not a bender, but he was still connected to Agni, and drew energy from the spirit's light as his sister did. Having such difficulty with sleep sounded miserable.

Anji shrugged in a resigned manner. "I'm used to it," she assured them. "The benefit is that I don't need as much rest either."

"You still need to sleep though," Azula argued. "Zuzu and I dozed off earlier back at-while you were getting your things. We'll do it in sections, it's only fair. I'll take first watch, wake you in two hours for the darkest part, seeing as I'll be weakest then and Zuzu can take the last two."

Anji was hesitant but folded when Zuko supported his sister's plan. She curled up in the tent across from him, Zuko falling asleep instantly while she stayed awake, images of her ruined home haunting her vision and making her reluctant to close her eyes and invite the guaranteed nightmares. The lemur-bat she had discovered in the temple gardens while crying who had given her a peach was clinging to her. He was a silent reminder that she was not completely the last relic of a lost nation. Merely the last human.

She hated to dream, to see the visions of death and sorrow that had haunted her soul since the Beginning, but she had no way to stop or control it, and Azula was right that she couldn't stay awake forever. She expected a dream of the temples, be it her own memories or her past lives' time there, but this memory of when she was a little girl stung her heart especially hard.

Six-year-old Anji hugged her knees to her chest and buried her face in them to try and stop herself crying. Kelsang and she were visiting the Southern Temple when something he had not explained came up and he had left her in the care of Monk Tashi. She knew her guardian did not like the Elder, and his expression was pinched when he handed her over to the older monk, but he had left her with him anyway on the orders of Abbott Pasang.

Anji wished desperately that Kelsang came back quickly, because Monk Tashi was horrible. It was an unkind thing to think, but she couldn't help it. Kelsang had been gone for three days, and Anji had only eaten four times, a small bit of fruit salad that didn't come close to being filling enough, in that whole time. Her water intake was also limited, and the monk was not accommodating her sleep problems either. Kelsang let her sleep whenever she was tired, knowing from experience with Kuruk that her power kept her sleep schedule erratic, but Monk Tashi insisted she go to bed at eleven in the night and be up at six, where he gave her breakfast before setting her to a full day of katas too advanced for a child just learning the fifth level of airbending to manage, even if she wasn't sleep and food deprived.

That was what had led to her being locked in the room. She had failed a kata, literally falling and begging tearfully to be allowed to rest. Monk Tashi had yelled until she was sobbing hysterically about what a disappointment she was, how she was weak and would be a failure as the Avatar. Then he had dragged her by the arm so roughly she had bruises, to a windowless room with a marble floor where he had locked her in. That was what seemed like years ago to the frightened child, though it couldn't have been more than an hour or so in reality.

Anji could not feel any of the elements properly in this horrible, too-small cell. The heavy door and lack of windows blocked her from the wind. It was too cold to feel her inner flame properly through the breathing exercises Master Hei-Ran had taught her for control when she bent fire during a tantrum at four. And while a master waterbender could feel the moisture in the air and a particularly talented master earthbender could control marble, Anji was not even close to being those yet. Being disconnected from the elements was like being blind and deaf and mute, all at once.

It was dark, too. That only made her more frightened. She could not understand why the Southern Temple had such a room. It was a terrible place, and the shadows looked like demons to her. Every time the shades of darkness shifted, she flinched and curled tighter in on herself, afraid it was a vengeful demon escaped from chains placed by a past Avatar and seeking vengeance.

Why, oh why was there such an awful place here?

'It was built back in the earliest days of the Temple' a male voice she couldn't place properly, though it was speaking in an old dialect of the Air Nomad tongue, meaning it must be one of her earlier Air predecessors. 'By us, when we built it. To confine certain enemies possessed by demonic forces so they could be exorcised. It was never meant for this, however.'

'I need to get out' she whimpered to them mentally. 'I can't stand it. I need to get out!'

'Not much longer,' Kuruk whispered reassuringly in the back of her mind. 'Kelsang will be back soon, I promise.'

'Just hang on a little while longer, young one' Yangchen agreed. 'Our guardian will return soon.'

Roku started telling her a story of how his airbender friend Gyatso had responded to Roku showing off with an attempt to 'glider-surf', resulting in Roku saving him only for their combined weight to make them crash into the rest of the students, and Anji was (partially) distracted from her fright as his words made her recall the events as if it were she herself who did so. Roku was just wrapping up the story and beginning to tell another about racing against his earthbending sifu, Sud, when the door suddenly slammed open and Kelsang came running inside.

Kelsang was usually considered by people to be a 'gentle giant'. He was large and burly with a long beard, but his kind nature was clear to see by any who looked his way, removing any would-be intimidation from his form. That day, however, running inside the cell, specifically designed to limit all types of bending, to find his child with red eyes, tearstained cheeks, exhausted and miserable, he looked enraged in a way Anji had never seen him. Only one other time in the two lives she knew him would she see him so furious, and that time it was mixed with panicked desperation as the temple was overrun.

Anji hardly noticed his fury, however. She flung herself into his arms, relieved to feel her small form to be engulfed by his protective embrace and hear the familiar thump-thud, thump-thud of his heartbeat as he cradled her close. She sobbed apologies for messing up the kata for Monk Tashi into his chest, clutching at his robe with tiny fists and pleading to be let out, swearing she'd work harder, just "please don't make me stay in here again Kelsang, please!"

"It's alright, you're safe, it's alright," Kelsang crooned to her, carrying her away from the cell with large strides Anji would have had to run to keep up with on her own. "I'm here now. Tashi should never have put you in here. I won't let him near you again Anji, I swear. You don't have to apologize. I'm sorry that I ever left you with him. This will never happen again, Anji."

"Don't leave me again," she begged, hiccupping as she finally began settling, reassured by his words. Kelsang would never lie to her.

"Never," he promised firmly.

He cleaned her up and put her to bed with a filling meal full of her favourite vegetables along with a freshly baked fruit pie and several stories that, although traces of upset lingered, made her giggle slightly. Sometime after falling asleep while he ran a hand over her hair and told a story about making a fool of himself in front of a boy he liked as a young monk-in-training, Anji woke again, panicking when she realized that her guardian was gone. She calmed a bit when she heard his voice just outside the cracked door but hearing his angry tone and Monk Tashi's voice made her tense again. She wrapped her arms around her legs, reminding herself anxiously that Kelsang had promised to keep Tashi away from her, and he wouldn't leave her again.

He had promised, and Kelsang never broke his promises. Not to her, not to Kuruk, not to anybody.

"-did was torture!" Kelsang exclaimed furiously. "What is the matter with you, that you would torment a child like that?!"

"That so-called child is the Avatar! She should not be wasting time playing frivolous games! She needs to train, to be prepared to protect the world, as is her duty!"

"She's six-years-old! There is a reason Avatars are traditionally told of their status at sixteen!"

"Each time leaving the world to suffer as they float around being useless and take up to a decade or more to master the remaining elements," Tashi retorted, a sneer in his voice. "The way you coddle that pathetic excuse for an Avatar is the reason she is turning out to be such a disappointment! I am certain Yangchen's guardian did not let her student waste time braiding hair and having tea ceremonies with dolls instead of mastering airbending!"

"A disappointment? She started training her bending a year ago and is already on the same level as children four years older than her!"

"She would be further still if not for you giving into her every desire!"

"You're despicable, and you are never to so much as look at Anji again!" Kelsang hissed, sounding more enraged than Anji had ever heard him. She could hear the winds swirling in the hall, responding to the pair's fury. "If you do, I will inform my fellow varlets and the White Lotus that I fear you are a threat to the Avatar's wellbeing! Seeing as you were starving her, I would not be lying! As it is, I will be informing Abbott Pasang of your despicable actions!"

"So be it, but when your coddling of the girl ruins her and makes her into the greatest failure of the entire Avatar lineage, you will have no one to blame but yourself!"

That night, Kelsang had responded by insisting that Anji would go down as one of, if not the greatest Avatar in documented history. Then he had stormed back into the bedroom and found little Anji crying, and distracted her with teasing and sweets, until the conversation was forgotten, overshadowed by the trauma and the verbal wounds healed by her guardian's reassurance and loving care. Several years later, Anji overheard a conversation between two gossiping teenage students, debating why Tashi had been expelled from the Nation right after their visit, the first person in decades to be exiled, and she had put two-and-two together.

But the dream cut off before Anji could recall any of that.

She woke with a jolt, making Momo whine as she sat up suddenly, shaken and with her heart pounding painfully against her ribs. Tashi's words echoed in her mind, making tears well in her eyes as they had that night. She clutched Momo to her heart, holding in her sobs to keep from disturbing Zuko, asleep on the other side of the tent or alerting Azula outside to her distress.

"Monk Tashi was right," she whispered to the animal. "I am the greatest failure of the Avatar lineage, and now the whole world is paying for it. And the three of us-you, Appa and I. We're all that's left, Momo. Everyone else is gone forever. So many have died. All because of me."

It was something that would haunt her for the rest of that life. Even as she learned to push through it, to focus on the living and not the dead, thoughts of 'what if' and 'might-have-been's continued to lurk in the back of her mind, and always would.