Chapter 52: Past Contact

It was the first day that Aang woke up in an unfamiliar place, having no idea where in the world he and Momo had ended up.

The first thing he tried to do was climb the tallest tree for a better view, only to find that there was ocean in every direction. Wherever this island happened to be, it was nowhere near the mainland. For a moment Aang wondered if he might have been pulled into the spirit world again, and if Momo had been pulled in there with him. However, a simple test of using his bending was enough to disprove that possibility. They were still in the physical world, just in a place that Aang had never been to before, and very lost.

So Aang tried to find any kind of settlement on this island, and the likely place was at the top of the hill in the center. But when he got up there all he found was a strange hexagon, with no sign of who or what dug it out of the ground. The hexagon didn't look like any kind of rock Aang had ever seen before, and on a whim Aang tried to earthbend it, only to find that it wouldn't respond to earthbending. That was just one more mystery on top of everything else, and Aang had no idea what to do while he was here.

Aang sat down on one side of the hexagon, and had Momo right in front of him. "This is so strange. I wish I had some help right now. I wish I had Roku."

Right as he said, Aang realized the obvious.

"I do have Roku!"

Aang crossed his legs and put his fists together, as he usually did for meditating. He focused on the connection that lay deep within himself, calling on the past lives available to the Avatar. Aang soon felt the presence of another within him, and that presence manifested outside so that he could speak with it. The presence took the form of Avatar Roku, but with his appearance in various shades of blue. Roku looked rather pleased at being here, glad that Aang had figured this out on his own, as every Avatar was meant to do.

"You're right, Aang. All the past Avatars, all their experience and wisdom, are available to you if you look deep inside yourself."

"So where am I Roku?" Aang asked. "What is this place?"

Roku looked around, yet was just as puzzled as Aang. "I… don't know, Aang. But I see you are lost in more ways than one right now."

"I am," Aang admitted. "I need to figure out what to do once I face the Fire Lord."

"If you face him at all," Roku noted.

"I'm supposed to," Aang said. "It's just… it would be so much easier to just let Taiyo do it for me. He's far more powerful than I am, and he's more willing to do it than I am. But I don't know if that's right."

"The easy way out rarely is." Roku thought on that, recalling memories from long ago. "When we last spoke, I told you my role in letting this war begin. But there was one part of my life that I did not say."

One Hundred and Twenty-One Years Ago.

It was the middle of summer, but at the North Pole it was still really cold for someone that grew up in the Fire Nation. Despite having spent years here mastering waterbending and learning the ways of the Water Tribe, Avatar Roku still didn't understand how anyone could feel at home in the cold. Avatar Roku had journeyed to the top of the world at the request of an old friend, taking Fang to the Fortress of Solitude. After passing through the blizzard that shielded the place from prying eyes, Fang flew down for a landing right in front of the bizarre crystalline structure.

Standing in front of this Fortress of Solitude was a longtime friend, the visitor from the stars Lor-Zod.

Fang landed a few dozen feet away, and Roku climbed off so that he could walk up to his friend. "Now what's so important that we had to meet all the way up here?"

Lor-Zod nodded and got straight to the point. "I need your help."

That could not be good, as far as Roku imagined anyway. "This had better not be about another magic artifact that possesses my friend."

"No, fortunately," Lor-Zod said. "This isn't official business Roku. More like a favor."

Roku nodded, and then followed Lor-Zod into the Fortress. "I'm listening."

Inside Lor-Zod stopped halfway down the first corridor, and he looked back at Roku. "Could you please come to Krypton?"

Surprised, and a little bit humbled, Roku nodded again. "How could I say no to that?"

"Thank you," Lor-Zod said. He reached for a small box attached to his belt, which had a variety of alien symbols on one side. "It will be just a moment."

Roku was curious about that strange box. "That doesn't look like your usual toys."

"It's not mine," Lor-Zod said. He held the box away from himself and Roku. "I borrowed this from a friend on New Genesis, to keep this transport off the books. Mother Box, Krypton please."

The box beeped, and a bright vortex appeared in midair with a loud boom. Lor-Zod put the box away and placed a hand on Roku's shoulder to reassure him, and they leapt into the vortex together. It closed behind them, and for a few moments they were floating through a bright white tunnel, until they came out the other side. Immediately Roku felt another hundred pounds heavier, stumbling for the first few steps and almost falling onto the ground. The air was frigid and seemed to press in all around him, and he struggled to breath in the cold and thick air.

Roku's perception of the world was spinning, before everything went black.

Red light greeted him when Roku came to, finding that someone had put him in a soft chair while he was out. He was also outside in cold thick air, feeling a slow breeze that had far more push than it should. Roku was looking up at a bright orange sky, dominated by a sunset that was larger and taking longer than the sunsets back home. He turned his head away from the red sun and saw the opposite horizon, spotting a pair of small moons rising to greet the night. It was tempting to just lay there and look at the sky, if only to enjoy the sight of an alien world.

Roku groaned and struggled to sit up, feeling like his body was filled with lead. "What happened?"

Lor-Zod was standing beside him, and he gestured to the view before them. "Welcome to Krypton."

Vast fields of snow and ice covered the land for miles around, tinted red and orange by the sunlight as well as blue and teal from the double moonlight. Various flocks of strange animals moved across the landscape, none of them recognizable in Roku's eyes. For a while Roku simply stared at the alien world, lost in the thought of actually being on another planet. Yet some deep part of him of kept Roku grounded to reality, a memory from another life making this experience feel just a little bit familiar to him.

"Right…" Roku muttered. He slowly stood up, fighting his apparent weight the entire time. "Why did you want me to come here again?"

"I need a favor," Lor-Zod answered. He turned to let Roku see someone else with them. "Or rather, we need a favor."

Roku tried to bow, felt pain in his back from the effort, and quickly stood up straight again. "I'm not really sure what I can do. This place isn't agreeing with me, mister…"

"Gam-El," he answered. He was slightly shorter than Roku, had short black hair, and wore clothes identical to Lor-Zod except with an angled line inside the diamond instead of the zig-zagged line. "We need you for a task that we can't do ourselves. Lor says you have abilities well suited for it."

"They really aren't that special," Roku said. "At least not compared to what you guys can do."

"Not here," Lor-Zod said. He pointed to the setting red sun. "The powers you've seen come from yellow sunlight, and we don't have that here. On Krypton, you're the one with the special powers."

"If they work here," Roku said, wondering if the gifts of spirits could still reach him. "Let's find out."

Roku stretched his arms and legs to get ready to bend, needing the exercise to help get used to the environment. He pushed with his arms to airbend, and was surprised by a gale that swept up a blizzard. He then swept his arms to waterbend, and melted enough snow to make a wave thirty feet high. After that he punched to firebend, but only got a mere handful of flames. Finally he stomped the ground to earthbend, and a spike of rock pierced the ice and shot up fifty feet. Three out of four were better than before, with only firebending as the odd one out.

"Wasn't expecting that," Roku admitted. He punched again, but still got very few flames. "It would seem that a red sun isn't hot enough to adequately power firebending."

Lor-Zod would have liked to have the time to study this, but he did not have it. "We're ready to begin."

Gam-El approached Roku, holding a white sphere that fit in the palm of his hand. "This is a sensor for tracking geological activity. At least five kilometers down we can get better data on Krypton's mantle. Fifteen will give us a glimpse into Krypton's core. Bury it as far down as you possibly can, but don't risk your life doing it."

Roku took the sphere, which was surprisingly light. "You can't do it with your technology because…"

"The High Council forbade it," Gam-El answered. "We're doing this because of a theory we have, a theory that those politicians refuse to consider."

"That's why we need you," Lor-Zod said. "No one else knows you're here. The Mother Box and its boom tube we borrowed have guaranteed it. You can get down there with your bending, put the sensor in place, and no one will be any the wiser."

"So I'll be circumventing one of your laws," Roku surmised. He thought about it, and then shrugged. "Too late for me to say no, I suppose."

Roku pocketed the sensor and immediately got to work, finding a spot away from the others to do it. He started by using waterbending to clear a patch of ice and snow, reaching the permafrost that lay underneath. Once down there Roku started earthbending, lowering a smaller patch of ground that he stood on. Rock and dirt moved out of the way at Roku's command, and his descent underground got faster with time. Soon Roku found himself in darkness, none of the red sunlight reaching the bottom of this steadily growing shaft.

It started getting hot in there as Roku continued his descent into Krypton, which was not entirely unexpected given where he was going. He was a few miles down when he started to sweat, and so he slowed his pace to better manage his exertion. Although his firebending was pitifully weak here, the lessons of heat management still applied and kept him relatively cool. It was enough for him to complete several more miles, but by the tenth mile then the heat was becoming too great for him to go any deeper.

Here Roku took out the sensor, and he put in on the rock in front of him. He then made that rock sink even deeper than here, sending the sensor down where he did not dare go. He repeated his earthbending a few times to bury the sensor as far down as he could, and then he filled in the narrower shaft with surrounding rock. Roku then sent that rock down, pushing the sensor even further. He figured he had it down another mile when he finished, and then Roku started his ascension back to the surface.

When Roku made it back he saw the others waiting. "There, I got it as far down as I could."

Gam-El was holding a flat device in his hand. "Thank you, I'm already getting data from it."

Lor-Zod nodded, took out the Mother Box, and then looked at Roku. "Now let's get you home."

"They broke their laws to do what they knew was right. They made that choice and acted on it, and I regret not doing the same with Sozin. So I offer you this wisdom, Aang. You must be decisive."

Avatar Roku quickly faded away and left Aang alone here, having only the silence for company. Aang thought about the words Roku spoke and the memories he shared, that as the Avatar it was his role to make the hard choices. While Aang thought about that, he also went back into the strange forest, looking for something to settle the rumbling in his stomach. Fortunately for him there were plenty of edible fruits hanging from tree branches, so Aang did not have to worry about him or Momo starving on this strange island.

Soon Aang was back at the hexagon, sitting in his meditation pose and calling upon another past life for guidance. "Avatar Kyoshi, I need your wisdom."

Just as Roku had done before, Avatar Kyoshi appeared before Aang in an ethereal blue form. "In my day, Chin the Conqueror threatened to throw the world out of balance. I stopped him. And the world entered a great era of peace."

"How did you stop him?" Aang asked. "History isn't entirely clear on that."

Kyoshi closed her eyes, while one hand fingered the other, searching for something that she no longer possessed. "I faced the reach of a darkest night, with the light of a brightest day."

Three Hundred and Seventy Years Ago.

A vast army marched across the land, filling the narrow peninsula from one side to the other. Aside from the impenetrable city of Ba Sing Se, this southwestern corner of the continent was the last part of the Earth Kingdom yet to be conquered. At the head of the army was Chin the Conqueror, a rather short man but a powerful earthbender nevertheless. It was a tremendous feat for one man to extend his reach this far, grown from a small speck of dirt into the vast empire he held today. Chin had saved this part of the continent for last, for it contained the home village of the Avatar herself.

That Avatar was facing the approaching army, standing in front of the fishing village that was her home. Kyoshi watched the army approach with Chin at the front, their eyes meeting for the first time. Chin's conquest of the Earth Kingdom had been so sudden and swift it had taken Kyoshi by surprise, and it had come to this point before Kyoshi was ready to act. The army and its leader stopped just before Kyoshi, with Chin standing a mere ten feet away. For a time they simply stared at each other, both trying to anticipate what the other would do first.

"Turn back now," Kyoshi insisted. "I will not let you take any more of this land."

"The land is already mine," Chin boasted. He pointed at Kyoshi. "I once hoped you would join me Avatar. We both know that the Earth King does not deserve his throne. He is weak, we are strong, and our combined might could bring this kingdom into a new golden age."

"It is not our place to decide who should rule," Kyoshi said, she pointed in the direction from whence Chin came. "Leave, before you regret your actions."

Chin held his fists apart. "You cannot stop me. I have acquired a power beyond that of the Avatar. If I must kill you with my gift from the stars, then so be it."

From Chin's back a strange blue metal grew, covering his skin and absorbing his clothes. His torso was covered first, then his arms and legs, and finally his head. The blue metal covering Chin resembled a form fitting suit of armor, with a metal face just as expressive as the organic face underneath. More of the blue metal grew from Chin's back, taking the shape of a beetle with legs wrapped around his torso and pincers pointed up and three times as long as his head. Though he was still short, he was now a true force to be reckoned with.

Yet Kyoshi did not show surprise at this change. Her left hand held up a small lantern, shining with an emerald green glow. Her right hand wore a green ring, she placed it in the lantern, and spoke the oath.

"In Brightest Day, In Blackest Night,

"No Evil Shall Escape My Sight.

"Let Those Who Worship Evil's Might,

"Beware My Power, Green Lantern's Light!"

The lantern's glow shined brighter, flowing through the green ring and into Kyoshi. The green glow covered her body from head to toe, and in a bright flash of light her warrior's outfit changed into a different kind of uniform. The fabric parts changed to a skintight green suit, while the armor parts were embedded in that suit. Her face paint and headdress remained the same, albeit in various shades of green. A lantern shaped emblem appeared on her waist, and then her body glowed with a bright green aura.

Green Lantern Kyoshi attached her power battery to a belt at her waist. "Chin, I give you one more chance, leave."

"I give you…" the metal around Chin's right hand morphed into the shape of a cannon, which he aimed at Kyoshi. "No Chance At All!"

That cannon fired a beam of blue plasma, which was blocked by the appearance of a green shield. Kyoshi jumped into the air and flew into the sky, held aloft by the aura around her. The metal on Chin's back morphed into insect wings, and he too flew into sky in pursuit. Chin continued to fire his blue plasma cannon at Kyoshi, but she was nimble in flight and avoided every shot. A large green war fan appeared in Kyoshi's hand, which she swung toward Chin. The power of her green ring amplified her airbending, and that simple fan wave spawned a gale that could topple a forest of trees.

Chin was snared by the wind and sent tumbling toward the ground, but he managed to land on his feet instead of crash. Kyoshi then replaced the green fan with a large green fist, which punched an enormous green fireball straight at Chin. Chin raised his foot and the blue metal grew into a gigantic boot, which stomped on the ground to earthbend a fifty foot block of rock out of the ground. That rock blocked Kyoshi's green fireball, while a pair of large hammers formed around Chin's arms. Chin swung the hammers up and launched the block into the air, hurtling toward Kyoshi with surprising speed.

Kyoshi aimed her ring at the incoming block and fired a large green beam, hitting the block dead center and destroying it in a large explosion. During the blast Chin's insect wings morphed into a rocket, which launched him into the air even faster than the block. That speed surprised Kyoshi long enough for Chin to strike with his hammers, hitting her in the chest and knocking her out of the sky. As she fell Kyoshi conjured a green lasso that snared Chin's foot, pulling him down along with her. Kyoshi crashed into the ground closer to her village, while Chin was slammed into the ground even harder.

"Enough of this," Kyoshi said as she stood up in a crater. She called upon the power of the Avatar State and her eyes glowed blue, but in moments that blue glow turned green. "It ends here!"

Kyoshi raised her ring toward the sky and made a giant green fist, and it slammed down on Chin like the wrath of an ancient god. The impact left Chin in a large fist shaped crater, his metal armor cracked and chipped in places. The fist slammed down again, deepening the crater and further damaging Chin's armor. Kyoshi aimed her ring and fired a large green beam, blasting Chin further into the ground. Deeper in the crater and half buried in dirt, Chin lay there with pieces of his armor broken off. Kyoshi made a giant green hand and grabbed Chin, pulling him out of the crater and bringing him in close.

The green hand changed into a green sphere around Chin, seeping into all the cracks and getting underneath the armor. A flex of power shattered the armor and shredded most of Chin's clothes, leaving one piece of metal embedded in his back. It was a blue scarab, the core from which all the armor came from. Kyoshi made sharp green claws appear and plunged them into Chin's back, removing the scarab with them, and Chin screamed in agony before his body went limp. She hadn't meant to kill him, but Kyoshi wasn't going to mourn the loss of a conqueror.

Kyoshi dropped the body in front of the army, and she floated in the air above the corpse. "Leave."

The army panicked and all the soldiers ran for their lives, for if their leader could not defeat the Avatar then they stood no chance at all. But Kyoshi was not satisfied, for it was only a matter of time before another army came to threaten her home. One solution came to mind, drastic though it may be, and she saw it through without hesitation. She fired a large green beam straight into the ground, plunged deep into the Earth, beyond the deepest bedrock. The green light spread out in a line that split the peninsula in two, and then stretched across the severed end of land.

With earthbending amplified by her ring and the Avatar State, Kyoshi pulled the peninsula apart, separating her home from the mainland. Lava erupted from all sides of the detached landmass, and she moved it out to sea, just over the horizon. When she finished there was a brand new island, isolated from the rest of the Earth Kingdom and safe from invading armies. But Kyoshi's work was not yet done, for there was one thing left for her to take care of. She still possessed the blue scarab that had granted Chin his power, and she did not trust anyone to keep it out of the wrong hands.

A year after her battle with Chin, Kyoshi returned to the place of their battle, at a time when no one was present to witness her actions. These new cliffs were the last place anyone would look, and it was a small bit of poetic justice toward the man she had taken the scarab from. Kyoshi picked a spot far from the cliff's edge, where it would take many centuries for erosion to erase the ground so far inland. She used her ring to suspend the blue scarab in a green orb, used earthbending to dredge up enough sand to fill it, and then firebending to melt the sand into crystal clear glass.

Kyoshi made one last look at the scarab suspended in a glass orb, and got to work hiding it from the world. She encased the glass sphere in green light, and fired it within a green beam straight down into the earth. The beam carried the glass sphere underground, and melted the surrounding rock in the process. The result was a narrow column of lava extending halfway down to sea level, with the glass sphere at the bottom. When Kyoshi stopped the molten rock quickly cooled and hardened, creating igneous rock in a place where it could not have formed naturally.

"There," Kyoshi muttered, her work here finished. "Maybe someday, someone smart enough to use it wisely will find it."

"I had stopped Chin, hidden his weapon away for a future generation to find, and the world had entered an era of peace."

"But you didn't mean to kill Chin," Aang said. "You couldn't have known that taking the scarab away would kill him. It was an accident."

"My actions still ended a life," Kyoshi said. "There is no difference. Even if I did know at the time, I still would have done it. Chin had to be stopped, and I had to do what was necessary. I offer you this wisdom, Aang. Only justice will bring peace."

Aang watched Kyoshi fade away, and then punched the ground. "I knew I shouldn't have asked Kyoshi."

Despite having heard what he did not want to hear, Aang still thought about what Kyoshi had said. He chose to interpret it as a responsibility to act, but that what action to take was a matter of good judgement to do the right thing. However that wasn't enough for Aang, and now he wanted advice from an Avatar that wasn't known for brutal efficiency. Aang resumed his meditation and called on yet another past life, the most recent Water Tribe Avatar. He didn't know that Avatar's name, but still felt the connection to him.

A thirty-something year old man wearing thick furs appeared before Aang. "I am Avatar Kuruk."

"Pleased to meet you," Aang said. "I need advice."

"What troubles you?" Kuruk asked.

"It's just…" Aang said, struggling to get it out. "I feel so helpless, like I don't have any choice."

"Not everything is within the Avatar's control," Kuruk said. "I had to learn that the hard way."

"What happened?" Aang asked. "I mean, history isn't my best subject, but wasn't your time peaceful?"

Kuruk nodded. "When I was young, I was always a go-with-the-flow kind of Avatar. People seemed to work out their own problems, and there was peace in the world."

"That sounds like a nice time to live," Aang said.

However, Kuruk's tone shifted to a somber note. "Then, I lost the woman I loved to Koh, the Face Stealer. It was my fault. If I had been more attentive and more active, I could have saved her. Aang, you must shape your own destiny, and the destiny of the world."

Avatar Kuruk faded away, and once again Aang was alone with his thoughts. He sat there in the darkness of the night and having only the faint stars for light, feeling more lost now than ever before. Aang meditated on what he had learned, and dosed off there for a little while. It was still night when he woke up, and he wasn't sure how long he had slept. He had hoped that he would wake up somewhere else, that the last day had only been a dream, but it was not to be. He was still here, Momo was still here, and there was nowhere for them to go.

So Aang turned to Momo, since the lemur was the only company he had. "All these past Avatars, they keep telling me I'm gonna have to do it. They don't get it."

Momo chirped something at him.

Aang imagined that Momo was agreeing with a thought he just had. "Right, maybe an Air Nomad Avatar will understand where I'm coming from."

This time when Aang focused, an Air Nomad woman appeared before him. "I am Avatar Yangchen."

Aang was glad to see another airbender, even if she was a past live from over half a millennium ago. "Avatar Yangchen, the monks always taught me that all life is sacred. Even the life of the tiniest spider-fly caught in its own web."

"Yes," Yangchen agreed. "All life is sacred."

"I've always tried to solve my problems by being quick or clever," Aang said. "And I've only had to use violence for necessary defense. And I've certainly never used it to take a life."

Yangchen knew where this was going, and she cut Aang off there. "Avatar Aang, I know that you're a gentle spirit, and the monks have taught you well. But this isn't about you. This is about the world."

Aang was surprised to hear that from another airbender. "But the monks taught me that I had to detach myself from the world so my spirit could be free."

"As all Air Nomads are taught," Yangchen said. "Many have succeeded, and achieved spiritual enlightenment. But the Avatar can never do it. Because your sole duty is to the world. Here is my wisdom for you. Selfless duty calls you to sacrifice your own spiritual needs, and do whatever it takes to protect the world."

Aang watched Yangchen vanish, and he looked at Momo. "I guess I don't have a choice. I have to kill the Fire Lord."

It was late at night, and Aang was really tired, so he went to sleep for the rest of the night. He woke up the next morning, and still had to deal with the face that he was still completely lost. But something was different today, which he noticed when he climbed the tallest tree to get a better perspective on the area. There were some mountains on the horizon, mountains that hadn't been there yesterday. Aang rubbed his eyes and looked again, now certain of what he was seeing. Those mountains appeared to be getting larger, taking up more of the horizon with each passing moment.

"Are those mountains getting bigger?" Aang wondered aloud. He looked in the opposite direction and saw strange waves in the ocean, and then looked back at the seemingly growing mountains. "No… they're getting closer."

The whole island was moving, and Aang wasn't sure if that was more exciting or terrifying. He climbed down from the tree and ran to the island's edge, jumping off there and diving deep into the water. The 'land' for lack of a better term, ended almost immediately beyond the edge, and there was water underneath the island. And while he was swimming Aang saw something huge, a massive scaly leg moving through the water. After that scare Aang immediately surfaced, gasping for air after his short swim.

Aang saw the island steadily moving forward, and so he got back ashore before it could leave him behind. Back on land, which he realized wasn't really land, Aang ran in the direction it was moving, quickly reaching the front of it faster than if he had tried to swim there. At the front of the island Aang dived back into the water, and he saw the face of a massive beast. A massive paw caught Aang, forcing him back up to the surface. The whole island tipped over too, and now Aang saw the beast's head above the water.

"A lion-turtle…" Aang muttered. He could barely believe it, having thought they were little more than legend. Aang respectfully bowed to the lion-turtle. "Maybe you can help me?"

Aang told the lion-turtle everything. Everything he had been through, everything that was expected of him, everything his past lives had told him. The lion-turtle patiently listened to it all, as if it had all the time in the world. For all Aang knew it did have that much time, being a creature known only in legends from time immemorial. When Aang finished he felt a great sense of relief, if only because he got to voice his concerns to someone outside of himself. Aang didn't know what the lion-turtle might do or say, but he would listen nevertheless.

The lion-turtle raised its other paw, slowly moving toward Aang. "The true mind can weather all the lies and illusions without being lost. The true heart can tough the poison of hatred without being harmed. Since beginning-less time, darkness thrives in the void but always yields to purifying light."

The claws on that paw touched Aang, one on his chest and the other on his forehead. A light shined from the tips of those claws, radiating a power not seen in many generations. Aang felt that power press against the very essence of his being, and he allowed it to what the lion-turtle intended. Before Aang knew it the lion-turtle was finished, and that paw was going back under the water. The paw Aang stood on was moving toward a nearby shore, which appeared to have snuck up on Aang without him knowing.

Placed on the shore, with Momo on his shoulder, Aang listened to the lion-turtle one more time. "Wait for him. He will come."

Aang watched the lion-turtle swim away, quickly disappearing over the horizon, going somewhere that only the lion-turtle would know. He wondered where the lion-turtle had been for all the thousands of years, and how many people had mistaken it for an island. It must have witnessed so much over the course of millennia, and forgotten more than Aang would ever know. The true age of the lion-turtle was beyond anything Aang could envision, since the Avatar itself was believed to have no beginning, and yet the lion-turtle was even older.

Just when Aang was trying to wrap his brain around that, he heard a distant boom in the distance, and he turned to see someone flying toward him. "Oh, there he is."

From far to the north, Taiyo was flying over the shoreline, heading south. He soon spotted Aang, changed course slightly, and flew in for a landing. Aang soon could see the new outfit Taiyo was wearing, much of it a deep blue similar to the sky, but with a subtle pattern that resembled chainmail. On his chest was the angled line in a diamond, bright red with yellow in the gaps, which drew the eye to it. Red boots and a yellow belt added more contrast, along with a red cape that hung from his back, which also had the kryptonian symbol, but in yellow.

Aang waited until Taiyo had set foot on the ground before speaking up. "Love the new look."

"Thanks," Taiyo said. He looked to the east, where the threat to the world would be coming from. "Are you ready for this?"

After swallowing the lump in his throat, Aang looked in the same direction. "As ready as I am ever going to be."