AN: Chapter 18 takes place during Season 1 Episode 17: The Northern Air Temple. This is gonna be a pretty fun chapter, I think. Various POVs as usually, so enjoyed my lovelies!
"So, travelers. The next time you think you hear a strange, large bird talking, take a closer look." The storyteller stated as looked around at his listeners with slight smile on his face, "It might not be a giant parrot but a talking man. A member of a secret group of air walkers, who laugh at gravity, and laugh at those bound to earth by it!"
Xiaodan smiled happily as the storyteller finished his tale and she turned to look at Aang with a delighted expression on her face while the storyteller held his hat out to the other listeners.
"Aren't Airbender stories the greatest?" Aang asked, looking at the two Water Tribe siblings with a smile on his face.
"Was it realistic?" Katara questioned eagerly, looking at Xiaodan and Aang interestedly, "Is that how was it was back then?"
"I laugh at gravity all the time." Aang replied then chuckled and shook his head, "Gravity."
Xiaodan giggled in amusement and bobbed her head slightly as she also replied to Katara's question, "And I laugh at everyone bound to earth by it!"
The storyteller stopped in front of Sokka and shook his coin-filled hat at him, "Jingle, jingle!"
Sokka searched inside his heavy parka but only managed to pull out a bug, a worm, and a few crumbs.
"Sorry…" The young warrior apologized weakly and the storyteller groaned in annoyance.
"Cheapskates!" the man mumbled as he walked away.
Aang stood and ran after the storyteller, Xiaodan only a few steps behind him with a delighted expression on her tanned face.
"Hey!" Aang said as he stopped behind the storyteller who was kneeling in front of the old man, "Thanks for the story."
"Tell it to the cap, boy." The man replied, shaking his hat behind him as he continued to face the old man.
Xiaodan and Aang both began searching their clothes for some money when Momo leapt from Aang's shoulder and picked up a coin that had fallen out of the cap. The flying lemur put the coin back in the hat as the storyteller turned around.
"Aww, much obliged little bat-thing." The storyteller said with a smile as he petted Momo's head.
"It means a lot to hear Airbender stories." Xiaodan said gratefully as she stopped searching her closes and clasped her hands behind her back, rocking back on her heels.
"Yeah, it must have been a hundred years ago your great grandpa met them." Aang added in a slightly yearning tone as he gestured slightly with one arm which Momo used to climb back up to his shoulder.
"What are you prattling about, child?" The man demanded then gestured to the old man sitting behind him, "Great Grandpappy saw the air walkers last week."
The old man made a noise and grinned, waving his hand at Xiaodan and Aang in greeting. The two Airbenders look at the storyteller in disbelief before sharing an excited look and hurrying back over to where Sokka and Katara were waiting.
"Hey, we're almost to the Northern Air Temple." Aang said excitedly as he steered Appa through the clouds towards the temple.
"This is where they had the championships for Sky Bison polo." Xiaodan commented as she hung over the front edge of the saddle upside down, her white-hair mingling with Appa's neck hair.
Katara smiled at the two Airbenders then moved back to sit beside her brother at the back of the saddle.
"Do you think we'll really find Airbenders?" She asked her brother wistfully as he whittled a piece of wood.
"You want me to be like you, or totally honest?"
"Are you saying I'm a liar?" Katara demanded angrily as she crossed her arms and leaned slightly away from her brother with a small scowl on her face.
"I'm saying you're an optimist." Sokka clarified then shrugged indifferently, "Same thing, basically."
"Hey, guys look at this!" Aang called out excitedly, cutting whatever retort Katara had off as the Water Tribe siblings hurried to the front of the saddle.
Xiaodan flipped herself right side up and turned around so she was leaning against the saddle's rim, her molten orange eyes staring at where several dark specks were flying around the Northern Air Temples.
"They really are Airbenders!" Katara stated in amazement as she looked at the people flying around the temple on glider-like contraptions.
Aang and Xiaodan looked at the figures flying around the temple then their expressions fell. Aang scowled and leaned back, his arms crossed over his chest.
"No, they're not." Aang stated firmly as Xiaodan sighed softly and rested her chin on her folded arms with a despondent expression on her face.
"What do you mean 'they're not?'" Sokka demanded in confusion as he waved his hands at the flying people, "They're flying."
Xiaodan shook her head, "They're gliding for sure, but they are definitely not flying. They're not Airbending."
"You can tell by the way they move." Aang explained, still scowling at the scene as Appa flew closer, "Those people have no spirit."
Suddenly a boy in an oddly shaped chair with glider-like wings attached to it flew right above them, causing Katara, Sokka, and Xiaodan to yelp and duck their heads. The boy's laughter reached the foursome as they watched him fly through the clouds.
"I don't know, you two." Katara quipped as she gestured toward the laughing boy who was flying almost dangerously close to them, "That kid seems pretty spirited."
The boy began flying away, shooting a look over his shoulder as he did so with an impish grin on his face. Aang frowned for a moment then grinned devilishly, causing Xiaodan to grin widely. The white-haired girl grabbed Aang's staff from the back of Appa's saddle and handed it to her brother as he got to his feet. Aang grinned at her then snapped his glider open and jumped from Appa's head, flying after the boy.
Xiaodan, Katara, and Sokka watched Aang chase after the other boy before their attention was pulled to a couple other kids on gliders surrounding them as Appa flew closer to the temple. Appa gave an agitated roar when one of the gliders nearly hit him the face and tossed his head back, knocking both Katara and Xiaodan into Sokka.
"Ow!" Katara gasped as she moved off her brother and rubbed her backside.
"We better find some solid ground, before it finds us." Sokka stated as Xiaodan jumped to her and rushed towards the front of Appa's saddle.
"Whoo!" Xiaodan whooped as she flipped herself onto Appa's head and picked up the reins, laughter spilling from her mouth as she directed the flying bison closer to the temple then landed him safely on the temple grounds. Moments later, the kids that had been gliding in the air landed near them, cheering as they watched the Aang and the boy.
The white-haired girl jumped from Appa's head and looked up at the sky, watching Aang and the boy fly around each other with a grin on her face while the two Water Tribe siblings climbed out of Appa's saddle.
"Go Teo!" the children cheered, "Show that bald kid how it's done!"
Xiaodan laughed and cheered along with the other kids as the boy and Aang began doing loop-de-loops as they flew around the temple then began a downward spiral around each other.
"Hey there," The boy shouted to Aang as they continued flying downwards, "You're pretty good."
"Yeah, I know." Aang replied flippantly as he glanced off to the side, "But I can do more than fancy gliding."
The boy watched as Aang flew closer to the temple and under a bridge, letting go of his glider when he reached one of the flat towers that made up the Northern Air Temple and began running along the wall easily. Aang created an air scooter halfway around the wall then jumped away from the wall and back onto his glider, flying upward so he was gliding alongside the boy.
"Wow, I don't think I can do that." The boy said in an impressed tone before smirking at Aang mischievously, "But here's a good one."
The boy flew a little faster and flicked a switch, causing smoke to come out of a small container underneath his flying chair. The boy flew through the sky with the smoke trailing behind him for a few minutes then he veered off to the side as the container no longer produced smoke, revealing that he had drawn picture of Aang's frowning face. Xiaodan laughed loudly as she clutched her stomach while the kids around her cheered and laughed happily.
Teo grinned at Aang, "What do you think?"
"It's great." Aang muttered in annoyance then glided down to where Xiaodan, Sokka, and Katara were standing with Appa.
The boy landed a moment later and jerked on his chair's brakes, skidding a few feet before coming to a complete stop. The foursome watched as some of the children lift the glider off the top of the boy's chair.
The boy looked at Aang for a moment then his eyes widened and he grinned broadly, "Hey, you're a real Airbender!"
"You must be the Avatar!" Teo continued in excitement, putting his hand to his head in disbelief and amazement as he looked at Aang, "That's amazing! I-I've heard stories about you!"
Aang rubbed the back of his head bashfully, "Thanks."
"Wow! This glider chair is incredible!" Sokka complimented as he looked at the chair's glider wings that two kids were holding.
"You think this is good, wait until you see the other stuff my dad designed." Teo said as he began wheeling himself into the temple with the four friends following after him.
"Woah…" Xiaodan muttered in shocked dismay as she looked around spacious room that was filled with metal pipes and machinery.
Aang looked around the room beside his sister, his expression just as worried and dismayed as he took in the pipes and machines spewing smoke and steam.
"Wow!" Sokka squealed excitedly as he ran up to one of the machines.
"Yeah, my dad is the mastermind behind this whole place. Everything's powered by hot air." Teo explained and gestured towards a woman as she used an elevator like contraption, "It even pumps hot air currents outside to give us a lift while we're gliding."
"This place is unbelievable." Xiaodan muttered as she turned a full circle with her head tilted back to see the full extent of the changes made to the temple.
"Yeah, it's great, isn't it?" Teo replied with a delighted grin.
"No." Aang stated as he walked away from Teo and Katara, "Just unbelievable."
Xiaodan trailed after the younger Airbender, her head still tilted back slightly as she crossed her arms firmly over her chest.
"Aang and Xia used to come here a long time ago." Katara explained quietly when she saw Teo's surprised and slightly hurt expression, "I think they're a little shock it's so…different."
"So better!" Sokka quipped happily as she looked at another machine.
Xiaodan and Aang stared up at a mural of the Air Nomads history that had pipes going through it, destroying the once beautiful painting.
"This is supposed to be the history of our people." Aang said sadly as Katara walked up the two Airbenders.
"Now look at it…" Xiaodan added quietly, her tone dismayed as she stared at a pipe that was going through the painting of a monk's head.
Katara gave the two Airbenders a sad look and reached out to put her hand on their shoulders but the Xiaodan and Aang moved away, walking over to the fountain with a sky bison statue on it that was in the middle of the room. Xiaodan cringed backwards when she looked into the fountain and saw the filthy green water. Aang gave his reflection in the dirty green water a squeamish look before recoiling violently when statue suddenly spat black smoke from its mouth.
"Ugh!" Aang and Xiaodan gasped in disgust, taking a step away from the statue.
"This is so wrong." Xiaodan grumbled, crossing her arms tightly over her chest again as Katara walked up behind her and Aang again.
"I'm sure some parts of the temple are still the same." The dark-haired girl stated as she put a reassuring hand on Aang's shoulder.
"It's nice to see that at least one part of the temple isn't ruined." Aang commented as he looked around large room that almost exactly like it had a hundred years ago.
"Thank the Spirits for that." Xiaodan quipped, her tense posture relaxing as she looked around the large room before walking over to where her brother and Katara were standing in front of a statue of a long-bearded Airbending master in meditation.
"Look out!" Someone shouted suddenly and a moment later the statue Aang, Katara, and Xiaodan were standing in front of was destroyed by a wrecking ball, throwing up a cloud of dirt and dust.
"What the doodle?" A man with crazy hair, half grown eyebrows, and wearing an apron questioned in confusion as he looked at the five teens, "Don't you know enough to stay away from construction sites? We have to make room for the bathhouse!"
"Do you know what you just did?!" Xiaodan screamed angrily at the man with a furious expression on her face.
"You just destroyed something sacred!" Aang shouted just as angrily, his knuckles turning white as his grip on his glider tightened, "For a stupid bathhouse!"
"Well, people around her are starting to stink." The mechanist said obliviously as he waved a hand in front of his face.
"This whole place stinks!" Aang yelled as he pointed at the mechanist then turned to look at the crane contraption just outside the broken wall.
The young Avatar growled angrily as he slammed his staff lengthwise against the ground, sending a powerful blast of air at the crane and knocking it clear off the mountain the temple was on.
"This is a sacred temple! You can't treat it this way!" Aang continued to shout as he walked closer to the mechanist and pointed at him aggressively, "I've seen it when the monks were here! I know what it's supposed to be like!"
"The monks? But," The man paused and scratched his beard in thought, "You're twelve."
"More like a hundred and twelve." Xiaodan muttered drily, her arms crossed over her chest again and her tensed tightly in aggravation
"Dad, he's the Avatar." Teo said to the man as he rolled up beside him, "He and the girl over there used to come here a hundred years ago."
Aang took a step closer to the mechanist, with Xiaodan right behind him as they glowered at the man as he took a step away from the two furious Airbenders.
"What are you doing here?" Xiaodan demanded then gestured with one hand, "Who said you could be here?"
"Hmm… Doing here…" The mechanist muttered to himself as he turned away from Aang and Xiaodan.
"A long time ago," He said, glancing at the two Airbenders and pointing his finger in the air for a moment then he walked over to Teo and stood behind his chair, "But not a hundred years, my people became refugees after a terrible flood. My infant son, Teo, was badly hurt and lost his mother."
Xiaodan's angry expression softened slightly and she let her arms fall loosely to her sides as the mechanist continued to talk.
"I need somewhere to rebuild and I stumbled across this place. Couldn't believe it! Everywhere! Pictures of flying people! But empty, nobody home. Then," The mechanist spread his arms out and began walking quickly towards Aang and Xiaodan, like he was flying, "I came across these fan-like contraptions."
"Our gliders." Aang and Xiaodan stated at the same time and the mechanist nodded his head excitedly.
"Yes! Little, light flying machines!" The mechanist said as he began waving his hands up and down then walked back towards the giant hole, "They gave me an idea. Build a new life for my son, in the air! Then everyone will be on equal ground! So to speak… We're just in the process of improving upon what's already here."
Katara sniffled and used Aang's orange shawl to wipe her tears away while Sokka rubbed at his eyes in attempt to keep his own tears at bay. Xiaodan merely pursed her lips and looked at the man's back with Aang, who had his arms folded across his chest.
"And, after all, isn't that what nature does?" The mechanist asked quietly, glancing over his shoulder at Aang and Xiaodan.
"Nature knows when to stop." Aang replied, his voice calmer as his anger began to fade.
"I suppose that's true." The mechanist conceded with a nod as he turned to face the five teens, "Unfortunately, progress has a way of getting away from us."
"It only gets away from you if you let it." Xiaodan said softly and the mechanist nodded his head towards her before his attention was grabbed by three lit candles sitting on a low table.
"Look at the time!" He gasped as he pointed at the candles then turned to the workers standing behind him, "Come! The pulley system must be oiled before dark."
"Wait," Sokka said as he walked closer to the three candles and looked them over skeptically, "How can you tell the time from that thing? The notches all look the same."
"The candle will tell us. Watch." The mechanist explained as he and Sokka looked at the candle which popped four times a moment later.
"You put spark powder in the candle!" Sokka exclaimed, clearly impressed and delighted as he looked up at the mechanist.
"Four flashes. So it's exactly four hours past mid-day. Or, as I call it—four o'candle." The mechanist gave a cheesy grin and Sokka laughed in amusement.
"If you like that, wait till you see my finger-safe knife sharpener. Only took me three tries to get it right." The mechanist continued, pulling off three of the wooden fingers from his left hand and tossed them into Sokka's hand as he walked past.
"Aaah!" Sokka squealed slightly as he looked at the wooden fingers in his hand with wide eyes until the mechanist returned and poked him in the back.
"Follow me!" the man urged and walked away again with Sokka hurrying after him.
Xiaodan watched Sokka and Teo's father leave along with Aang, Katara, and Teo then the young wheelchair bound boy turned to look at Aang with a smile on his face.
"Hey, Aang, Xia." He said, grabbing the two Airbenders' attention, "I want to show you something."
Aang and Xiaodan shared an interested look then followed after Teo along with Katara as he began wheeling out of the room towards another part of the Northern Air Temple.
"I just can't get over it." Aang said aloud as the four walked through a dark hallway with Teo at the front, "There's not a single thing that's the same."
"I don't about that." Teo replied as he stopped and picked up one of the native hermit crabs, holding it in his hand, "The temple might be different, but the creature that live here are probably direct descendants of the ones who lived here a long time ago."
Teo handed the hermit crab to Katara who smiled and cupped the little creature in her hands, watching as it walked sideways across her palms.
"You're right." Katara agreed as she gently poked the hermit crab's shell, "They're kind of keepers of the temple's origins."
Katara handed the crab to Aang who smiled as it began moving around his hand. Teo smiled too and picked up another crab from the ground then gently placed it into Xiaodan's hands. The white-haired girl smiled delightedly at the boy then turned her attention to the hermit crab crawling along her hand, her smiling softening into one of affection.
"Besides," He said as he started wheeling forward again, "There's one part of the temple that hasn't changed at all."
The three friends looked at Teo's back curiously then Aang and Xiaodan gently placed the hermit crabs in their hands back on the ground before following after Teo with Katara beside them.
The foursome stopped in front of a large door with a familiar Airbending contraption on the front.
"Hey, it's just like the one in the other temple!" Katara pointed out with a smile as she looked up at the door.
Teo turned his chair slightly so he was facing Xiaodan and Aang, "Only an Airbender can open it. So inside is completely untouched, just the way the monks left it. I've always wondered what it's like in there…"
Katara and Xiaodan looked at Aang curiously, the white-haired girl's head cocked slightly to the side as she waited for his decision.
"Little brother?" Xiaodan questioned gently and Aang bowed his head slightly, closing his eyes.
"I'm sorry." He apologized, sounding genuinely sincere, "This is the last part of the temple that's the same as it was. I want it to stay that way."
Xiaodan smiled and put her hand on his shoulder, silently telling him that she supported his decision. The younger Airbender gave her a weak smile in reply.
"I completely understand." Teo said sincerely, looking only a little disappointed but a grin soon appeared on his face as he looked at the two Airbenders standing in front of him, "I just wanted you two to know that it's here."
"Thank you." Xiaodan said gratefully, bowing to the younger boy slightly.
"Yeah, thanks, Teo." Aang said, smiling at the boy briefly then he and Xiaodan turned to leave with Katara and Teo following behind them.
"These lanterns are terrible. I can't see!" Sokka complained as he followed the mechanist down a dark stairway then paused to open the top of his lantern, revealing the fireflies inside, "Why would you want to use fireflies for light?"
"Hey close that up! They'll get loose!" The mechanist stated frantically and Sokka quickly closed the lantern lid, but not before one of the glowing insects flew out.
"Fireflies are a non-flammable light source." The mechanist explained as he and Sokka started walking down the dark stairway again.
The two came to a stop in front of a large wooden door with a gray putty-like substance surrounding the edges.
"Cover your nose," The mechanist instructed and they both plugged their noses, "And hold your breath."
Sokka held his breath just as the older man opened an eye-slot in the door and the two of them looked into a pitch-black room.
"Okay…" Sokka said with a small amount of sarcasm, "So you brought me all the way down here to see an empty room."
The mechanist slid the eye-slot shut and looked at the young Water Tribe warrior, "Wrong. It's filled to the brim with natural gas. Came across it my first time here. Unfortunately, I was carrying a torch at the time. Nearly blew myself and the whole place even more sky high! Thought my eyebrows would never grow back."
Sokka took a glance at the mechanist's patchy eyebrows and bit back a small snicker as the older man continued talking.
"Anyway, there's a vital problem that needs solving." The mechanist explained as he began checking the putty then gestured for Sokka to do the same, "From time to time, we have gas leaks. And they're nearly impossible to find."
"So, this place is an explosion waiting to happen." Sokka summed up as he stopped checking the putty and looked at the mechanist with wide eyes.
"Yes," The mechanist agreed with a nod, "Until I figure out how to locate something I can't see, here, smell, or touch."
Xiaodan grinned to herself as she leaned against her staff, watching as Teo explained how to use one of the gliders his father had invented. The Water Tribe girl was standing on the edge of one of the temple's parapets and holding onto the one the gliders as she looked over the edge.
"The wind will carry you. It supports something inside you." Teo explained as he too watched the nervous dark-haired girl, "Something even lighter than air. And that something takes over when you fly."
Katara put her glider to the side and looked down at the other kids flying below her, swallowing thickly.
"I've changed my mind." She stated as she started to back away from the edge, "I think I was born without that something."
"Impossible!" Teo said with a laugh, "Everybody has it!"
"Spirit."
"What?" Teo asked, turning to look at Xiaodan curiously, who was still leaning casually against her staff.
"Spirit." Aang clarified for his sister, "That's the something you're talking about."
"Yeah," Teo agreed thoughtfully then nodded at the two Airbenders with a grin, "I suppose it is."
Katara took a deep breath and picked the glider back up again, shifting nervously on her feet. Xiaodan laughed lightly and straightened from her slouch, twirling her glider nimbly in her hands as she walked up to the nervous girl.
"Don't worry, Katara, just let the wind hold you." The white-haired girl stated easily, then tossed herself backwards off the parapet with a whoop of joy.
Teo and Aang grinned as the pale haired girl suddenly swooped up in front of them on her blue glider, her laughter ringing through the air. Teo turned to look at Katara with an impish grin on his young face.
"Are you ready?"
"No!" Katara replied but jumped off the edge anyway and started screaming as she fell downwards, "Aaaaah!"
Her scream of terror soon became laughter as the wind caught the wings of her glider and she began flying through the clouds. Xiaodan laughed along with her as she flew beside her, a silly grin on her tanned and tattooed face.
"I can't believe I'm flying!" the dark-haired girl exclaimed, feeling completely exhilarated.
"Just make sure you keep your mouth closed so you don't swallow a bug." Aang advised as he flew up onto Katara's other side with Momo, who was catching said bugs in his mouth.
Xiaodan laughed and nodded at Aang in agreement, both remembering the first time they used their gliders and the amount of bugs that they had accidently swallowed. The female Airbender shook her head then used Airbending to speed up so that she was flying even with Teo who was a little bit ahead of Katara and Aang.
"Teo and Xia were right about the air." Katara commented lightly as she continued to fly, watching as Teo and Xia initiated a race and were soaring in-and-out of the clouds in front of her, "All I had to do was trust it, let it carry me."
Aang grinned and looked towards Teo and his sister as they both landed back on the parapet, "Even though Teo's not an Airbender, he really does have the spirit of one."
Aang veered downward and glided back towards the parapet, landing beside Teo lightly then he snapped his glider shut.
"I've been thinking," Aang commented as he looked at the wheelchair bound boy, "If you want to see what's in that room, I'd be happy to open the door for you."
"Great!" Teo exclaimed happily, beaming up at the younger Airbender.
Xiaodan grinned and put her hand on Aang's shoulder, giving him a proud smile then looked towards Katara, who was still flying back and forth in front of them.
"Wait!" the girl cried out as she flew past them, "How do I land this thing? What if I land over a-ack-ack-bleck! Bug! Bug! Ack, that was a bug!"
Teo, Aang, and Xiaodan exchanged amused looked before the older girl snapped open her glider and went to help her friend land the glider safely while the two boys watched.
Sokka looked through the shelves in the mechanist's workroom while the older man drew on a large piece of paper across the room. Sokka blinked and reached up to touch the strange looking balloon on one of the shelves curiously, which caused several scrolls, pieces of paper, the balloon thing, and a hard-boiled egg to fall to the ground.
"I said don't touch anything!" The mechanist scolded as he turned around and began helping the young Water Tribe boy pick things up,
"Oh, don't worry. That experiment's old." The mechanist said nodded towards the hot air balloon model then looked around for the hard-boiled egg that had disappeared, "And that egg was just part of last week's lunch."
"Ugh!" Sokka said after sniffing the air a few times, his face scrunching up in disgust, "Week old egg smell!"
"Quick, find that egg!" The older man urged and the two began crawling around the floor in search of the rotten egg.
Xiaodan rocked back on her heels eagerly as she and Aang stood in front of the Northern Air Temple's sanctuary with Katara and Teo standing a foot or so behind them.
"I can't believe I'm finally going to see what's inside!" Teo said excitedly and Xiaodan sent him a brief grin then turned to look at Aang.
"I take the left, you take the right?" Xiaodan asked and Aang nodded.
The two Airbenders took a deep breath and twisted their bodies around to gain momentum then thrusted both of their fists towards the horns that made up the beginnings of the lock on the door. The air blew through the horns and flipped the three blue dials around so their purple sides were now visible, the sound of dungchen horn filling the hallway as the air was forced through the dials. Xiaodan, Aang, Teo, and Katara watched eagerly as the door began to creak open.
"How can something so small that you can't even see it make such a big stink?!" Sokka wondered as he and the mechanist continued searching through the egg.
The mechanist paused and looked up as an epiphany came to him, "That's the solution to our problem!"
"Yeah…" Sokka said as he stopped searching and the two turned to face each other, "If we put a whole mess of rotten eggs in the cellar where the gas seeps up…"
"The gas will mix with the mess of rotten eggs!" The mechanist finished excitedly and Sokka nodded just as excited.
"Then if there's a leak…"
"You'll smell rotten eggs! Then you just follow your nose to the place where the smell is coming from…"
"And plug up the hole where the gas is escaping!" Sokka finished and he and the mechanist threw their hands up in the air ecstatically.
"You're a genius!" They both exclaimed then froze when a bell in the workroom began ringing.
"Something's wrong." The mechanist said as he got to his feet quickly, "I've got to go!"
Sokka watched the older man run out the door then hurriedly got to his feet and ran after him.
"This is a nightmare…" Aang said in horror as he, Xiaodan, Katara, and Teo stared at the inside of the Temple Sanctuary with dread and shock on their faces where Fire Nation weapons in varying stages of completeness were residing.
"You don't understand!"
The four turned around to stare at the mechanist as he walked up behind them with Sokka trailing after him.
"You're making weapons for the Fire Nation!" Xiaodan shouted, throwing her arm backwards to gesture at the massive hot air balloon and multiple uncompleted weapons in the room behind her.
"You make weapons for the Fire Nation?!" Sokka demanded angrily as he looked at the older man with an angry and betrayed expression.
"Explain all this!" Teo barked, sounding surprisingly harsh as he stared at his father, "Now!"
The mechanist looked away from their accusing stares with an ashamed look on his face.
"It was about a year after we moved here. Fire Nation soldiers found our settlement." The mechanist explained as he glanced at his son, "You were too young to remember this, Teo. They were going to destroy everything! Burn it to the ground! I pleaded with them, I begged them to spare us! They asked what I had to offer. I offered…my services."
The eccentric man looked at his son pleadingly, "You must understand. I did this for you!"
Teo looked way from his father, causing the mechanist's shoulders slumped and he walked away from the five teens, heading back to his work room.
The mechanist sighed as he put two eggs with smiley faces drawn on them into his hot air balloon model, along with a candle to make it float. He watched as the model hot air balloon rose into the air, his expression depressed when the door to his workroom was opened and he turned to look at the young Avatar, the white-haired girl, and his son standing in the doorway.
"When are they coming?" Aang asked firmly, his tone demanding an answer.
"Soon." The mechanist replied despondently just as the one of his time candles popped a single time, "Very soon."
"You can't give them any more weapons." Xiaodan stated as she, Aang, and Teo moved further into the room so they were standing right in front of the mechanist.
"If I don't give them what they want, they will destroy this place!" The mechanist protested just as his model hot air balloon caught on fire and crashed to the ground, which he hurried to put out with a cloth.
"How can I be proud of you when your inventions are being used for murder?" Teo asked his father, his voice sorrowfully as he looked up at him.
"I need some time to think." The man said, not making eye contact with any of them and he jumped when the bell on his desk suddenly rang.
"You need to leave!" He said urgently as he tried to usher the three out of the room, "Go!"
"We're not leaving!" Teo snapped, putting the brakes on his chair to keep his father from pushing him out the door.
"Then hide! Quickly!" the mechanist ordered and shepherded the three behind some of his inventions, then he pulled on a rope that opened a trapdoor on the floor of his workroom which lifted Fire Nation war minister into the room.
"You know better than to keep me waiting. Give me what you owe us so we can be on our way." The minster snapped harshly as he walked forward, glaring when the mechanist looked at the floor, "Well? Is there a problem?"
"No, right this way." The mechanist said quickly and gestured towards the open door, his eyes still downcast.
The minister walked towards the door but Aang used Airbending to push a small table into the door, closing it with a snap as he landed on top of the table in a crouch.
"The deal's off."
"The Avatar…" The minister murmured in surprise.
"Aang, don't get involved!" The mechanist pleaded worriedly as he looked between the minister and Aang.
"If I don't get what I came here for, the Fire Nation will burn this place to rubble!" the minister threatened menacingly.
"Get out of here!" Aang ordered, slapping the minister in the face with a stream of air, "You're leaving empty-handed."
The minister straightened and glared at Aang evilly, "Then the destruction of this temple will be on your head."
The Fire Nation minister left through the trapdoor and Xiaodan stepped out of her hiding spot, thrusting her fist forward then up, Airbending the trapdoor shut with a snap. Xiaodan and Aang look at each other, their expressions determined and they nodded in silent understanding. They would fight for this temple and its new inhabitants no matter what.
"This is bad." Teo stated worried as he, Sokka, Katara, Aang, and Xiaodan stood on a tall bridge.
"Very bad!" Sokka agreed pessimistically.
"Aang, what are we gonna do?" Katara asked, sounding just as worried as Teo and her brother, "How can we possibly keep them all away."
"I'll tell you how. We have something they don't." Aang said and smirked as he and Xiaodan pointed to the sky where a few kids were gliding, "Air power."
"We control the sky." Xiaodan continued, taking over the explanation briefly, "That's something the Fire Nation can't do. We can win!"
"I want to help."
The five teens turn to look at the mechanist as he appeared in the entryway leading onto the bridge.
"Good." Aang said with a nod and a slight smile, "We'll need it."
Xiaodan grinned at the man and pumped her fist in the head, "Lets knock some Fire Nation heads!"
"Oh yeah!" Sokka cheered and the two older teens high-fived each other.
"We finally got the war balloon working, thanks to Sokka." The mechanist said as he put his hand on the young Water Tribe warrior's shoulder, "This boy's a genius!"
"Thank you." Sokka said graciously as he grinned at the mechanist, "You're a genius!"
"Thank you!"
Katara, Aang, and Xiaodan exchanged deadpan looks then turned back to face Sokka and the mechanist along with the other people in the room who would be using the gliders.
"See, the problem with the old war balloon was you could get air-borne, but once it did, it just kept going." Sokka explained to the gathering as he gestured to the papers on the table they were standing behind, "You could put a hole in the top, but then all the hot air would escape. So the question, became, how do you keep a lid on hot air?"
"Ugh, if only we knew." Katara muttered and she, Aang, Xiaodan, and Teo snickered amongst each other.
"A lid is actually the answer!" Sokka exclaimed, choosing to ignore his sister's comment, "If you control the hot air, you control the war balloon."
"Huh, that's actually pretty smart." Katara complimented her brother, her tone sounding slightly surprised.
"Yeah, Sokka, I'm impressed." Xiaodan stated with a smirk as she crossed her arms over her chest, "What else you got?"
"Okay, we've got four kinds of bombs." Sokka replied, nodding towards the pale-haired girl, "Smoke, slime, fire, and…"
"Stink!" The mechanist finished gleefully, "Never underestimate the power of stink!"
The group nodded and murmured quietly to themselves for a moment then everyone began heading outside to the parapet to start preparations.
"They're coming!" A little girl shouted as she leaned over the edge of the parapet and pointed at the incoming Fire Nation soldiers.
"Are we ready?" Teo asked as he looked around.
"Yes." Katara replied then looked around as well, "But where's Sokka with the war balloon?"
"We'll have to start without it." Aang stated as he jumped off Appa's head, his glider in hand.
"Might be a good idea anyway," Xiaodan piped in as she tied off the end of the braid she had pulled her unruly hair into then leapt out of Appa's saddle, "The element of surprise and all."
Aang nodded at her in agreement and snapped opened his glider as the others began readying the gliders the mechanist had invented for takeoff. Xiaodan grinned and snapped open her own glider and the group of flyers got into formation with Aang at the front and Xiaodan and Teo slightly behind him on either side.
Aang gave the signal and the flyers took a running jump from the parapet, flying through the clouds towards the incoming soldiers, the rest of the temple dwellers cheering them on as they took off into the sky.
Aang, Xiaodan, and Teo lead the gliders through the clouds and started the assault on the Fire Nation troops making their way up to the top of the mountain, dropping the different bombs on the soldiers.
"Take them out of the sky! Now!"
Xiaodan whooped a laugh when she heard the soldiers command, laughing even harder when they raised their spears only to have slime bombs dropped on them. The Fire Nation soldiers began to cough and fall of the cliff as more bombs were dropped on them. The white-haired girl grinned widely as she flew up high then snapped her glider shut, using Airbending to slow her descent. She swung her staff quickly, sending an air blast at the soldiers and knocking them off the cliff side then she snapped her glider back open and soared back up into the air with the rest of the gliders.
Aang grinned as he watched his sister knock the soldiers from the mountain then he flew closer to the snowy mountain above the soldiers and leapt off his glider, creating an air scooter. He zoomed across the ledge on the air scooter, causing snow to fall on the soldiers below then he jumped back on his glider quickly, a grin spreading across his face as he watched the Fire Nation troops retreat back down the mountain.
"We've got 'em on the run!" Aang shouted as he came up between Teo and Xiaodan, "We need more slime!"
"On it!" Xiaodan called back then turned her glider upwards sharply and flew above the clouds, heading over to where Katara was sitting in Appa's saddle, tossing bombs up to the other gliders with Momo.
The white-haired girl was about to call out to the Water Tribe girl when chain grappling hooks suddenly shoot out of the clouds and nearly hit Appa as they latched onto the cliff, causing the large sky bison to rear back and nearly toss Katara from the saddle.
"Whoa!" Xiaodan gasped as she veered abruptly to the side to avoid being impaled on a grappling hook and she looked down, her orange eyes widening when she saw the metal tanks beginning to scale the cliff wall using the grappling hooks, "Spirits…"
Xiaodan landed on the side of the cliff beside one of the hooks and snapped her glider shut, jamming the end of it under the hook the trying to prying the hook from the cliff side while the gliders continued to drop bombs onto the tanks in an attempt to slow them down.
Aang saw what Xiaodan was doing then he flew closer to the cliff face, snapping his own glider shut and laid flat against it, causing the end to be embedded in the Cliffside, just underneath one of the grappling hooks. He quickly swung himself around so that he was hanging onto his glider and bounced slightly, using his weight to prying the hook loose. Aang snapped his glider back open and flew back up, looking down to watch the tank fall only for his mouth to drop in shocked dismay as the tank fired another grappling hook. Aang veered backwards with a gasp to avoid the second grappling hook as it flew through the air and latched onto the top of the cliff.
Aang and the other gliders flew around the top of the cliff, still trying to hold off the tanks as they continued to advance towards the temple, while he gliders swerved and rolled through the air, dodging the fire blasts being launched at them by the Firebenders inside the tank.
Aang landed in the midst of encroaching Fire Nation tanks, glaring at them with a determined expression on his face as he swung his staff, Airbending the tanks away from the temple. Xiaodan landed beside him and they both watched in dismay as the tanks flipped away but instead of stopping, the cabins rotated upright again and the tanks continued towards the Northern Air Temple.
"Whoa!" Xiaodan gasped, using her staff to deflect the fireball that were no being directed at her and Aang, "This isn't working, little brother!"
"I know!" Aang shouted back as the two Airbenders continued to dodge and deflect fireballs while making their way to the bottom of the cliff the temple had been built on.
"Those things are unstoppable!" Katara exclaimed as she watched Aang and Xiaodan try to stop the tanks from atop Appa's head.
"I think I know how they work." Teo replied as the too observed the tanks and the two Airbenders as he flew alongside Katara and Appa, "I remember my dad tinkering with the counterbalance system. Something to do with water. Works great, huh?"
"Water?" Katara questioned as an idea came to her and she looked over at Teo, "Can you get me close to one?"
"No problem!"
"Duck!" Xiaodan yelled then swung her staff and sent an air slice at one of the tanks after Aang had ducked down.
Aang straightened back up and sent his own air slice at the approaching tanks just as Katara landed between him and Xiaodan after jumping off the back of Teo's chair.
"Nice of you to drop in!" The white-haired girl quipped as she bent backwards, a fireball passing over her harmlessly.
Katara grinned slightly then began motioning with her arms as she prepared to Waterbend while Aang and Xiaodan continued to attack the tanks with air. The dark-haired girl breathed deeply then kneeled and cupped her hands around her mouth, exhaling a cloud of icy breath that quickly shoots forward, towards an approaching tank, freezing it in place. Katara straightened and raised her arms, bending the ice so that it popped out the bolts keeping the tank's wheels in place, causing the wheels to fall off.
"Whoo!" Xiaodan cheered and threw her arms in the air as Katara continued to use Waterbending to create ice that stopped the tanks forward progression.
The white-haired girl's good cheer died a moment later when it became apparent that there were too many tanks for Katara to Waterbend, even with Aang's help. Soon, both Aang and Xiaodan were defending the dark-haired girl from the fire blasts being launched at them, but they were quickly becoming overwhelmed.
"Appa!" Xiaodan and Aang exclaimed simultaneously as the sky bison landed in front of the two Airbenders and tossed two tanks away with his head.
Aang, Katara, and Xiaodan quickly ran up Appa's tail and leapt into his saddle, the sky bison taking off as soon a moment later.
"They're still coming!" Xiaodan stated, her voice high pitched with trepidation as the three teens looked down incoming troops and tanks, "Where's Sokka with that balloon!?"
The trio hopped from Appa's saddle when he landed on one of the temple's balcony overlooking the army.
"We're out of bombs!" Teo said anxiously as he wheeled over to the three after landing a few moments ago along with the rest of the gliders.
"Come on, Sokka." Katara muttered urgently as she looked at the approaching troops, her hands clasped to her chest, "Where's that war balloon."
"He did it!"
Katara turned when she heard Xiaodan's shout and looked over, her blue eyes widening in awe as she watched Sokka and Teo's father direct the massive war balloon with three huge bombs hanging from it towards the invaders alongside Aang, Teo, and Xiaodan.
"Hey, why aren't they shooting at us?" Sokka asked as he looked at the Fire Nation troops below him while the mechanist steered the war balloon.
"The insignia!" The mechanist exclaimed and pointed towards the red balloon where the Fire Nation insignia was painted in black, "They think we're on their side."
"Then I guess they won't see this coming." Sokka stated deviously as he sliced one of the ropes keeping a large bomb attached to the war balloon's basket.
"Bombs away!" The mechanist shouted as the slime bomb landed on the tanks and soldiers, covering them in nasty green slime.
Sokka grinned as he continued to the ropes connected to the bombs, both the two remained huge ones and several smaller ones, stopping some of the tanks and troops. Sokka and the mechanist looked over the side of the basket, taking in their handiwork only to stare in horror as the unaffected tanks began scaling the cliff.
"Oh no, that was the last one!" Sokka stated after the last bomb had hit the ground, watching as the tanks got closer to the temple.
The mechanist turned to Sokka then paused when a smell reached his nose, "Wait a second. You smell that?"
Sokka sniffed the air and his expression turned delighted then disgusted, "Rotten eggs!"
The two looked over the edge of the basket again and caught sight of a large crevice in the ground below them where the smell was coming from.
"There!" Sokka said excitedly as he pointed toward the crevice, "That's where the gas is escaping!"
The tanks continued to scale the cliff towards the Northern Air Temple while the people that lived their tried to knock the hooks away. Sokka looked at the tanks then the crevice and his expression changed as an epiphany hit him. He rushed over to the furnace that was keeping the war balloon in the air and began removing it.
"What are doing?" The mechanist squawked as he looked at Sokka like he was crazy, "That's our fuel source!"
"It's the only bomb we've got." Sokka retorted and the two leveraged the furnace over the side of the basket and into the crevice where the natural gas was escaping.
Xiaodan, Aang, Katara, and Teo looked over the edge of the balcony at the approaching Fire Nation army as the war balloon flew away from the temple. Nothing seemed to be able to the troops from getting to the temple when a huge explosion went off suddenly, throwing up a massive cloud of smoke and heat. The white-haired girl yelped and recoiled with the other three teens and covered her face with her arm when the smoke flew up towards them followed by a brief wave of heat.
"Look!" Aang exclaimed excited as the smoke cleared and he pointed towards the retreating Fire Nation soldiers, "They're retreating!"
"Yes!" Xiaodan shouted gleefully as she jumped and punched her fist in the air in triumph as the crowd to Earth Kingdom refugees cheered behind them.
"We're going down!" Sokka shouted as the war balloon suddenly sailed past the balcony, heading straight for the ground.
"No, Sokka! Hold on!" Katara shouted and Aang jumped onto his glider then flew towards the two in the rapidly falling war balloon, leaving Xiaodan, Teo, and Katara to watch worriedly from the balcony.
"Get ready!" Sokka called out to the mechanist as he finished tying a rope to the end of his boomerang and began swinging it in a circle as Aang flew towards them.
Aang circled around the war balloon once and Sokka threw his boomerang towards the younger Airbender when he came around the front again, the boomerang latching onto the back of the glider near Aang's feet. The mechanist grabbed Sokka and he screamed when Aang pulled them from the basket as he flew back up to the temple, leaving the war balloon to crash to the ground at the bottom of the mountains.
"You know what? I'm really glad you guys all live here now." Aang said as he smiled at Teo and his father as they and the group stood outside the temple with the sun setting in front of them.
Xiaodan smiled at Aang from her spot sitting on the base of old statue beside Katara as her brother picked up a hermit crab from beside her, lightly touching its shell with his finger.
"I realized, it's like the hermit crab." Aang continued as he smiled at the little creature in his hands, "Maybe you weren't born here, but you found this empty shell and made it your home. And now you protect each other."
"That means a lot," Teo stated gratefully as he smiled up at Aang, "Coming from you."
"Aang, you and Xia were right about air power." Sokka commented suddenly as he grinned widely and pointed at the sky, "As long as we got skies, we'll have the Fire Nation on the run!"
"Oh yeah!" Xiaodan shouted as she jumped up and threw her arms in the air, laughing as the crowd of temple dwellers cheered along with her.
No one noticed the mechanist turn slightly away from the cheering crowd and look down at the ground despondently.
War Minster Qin smirked as he watched one of his soldiers figured out how to get the crashed war balloon working using their Firebending.
"This defeat is the gateway to many victories." The man stated as he folded his hands in front of him, watching gleefully as one of the soldiers began inflating the balloon with Firebending, the Fire Nation insignia showing proudly.
Author's Note: Oh my god, I am sorry for the somewhat late update. Honestly, I've been so busy with school work that I barely had time to sit down and write the chapters and when I did find the time, my creativity and inspiration was nearly fried. Anyhooties, this chapter is kind of short compared to the past few but I hope it's okay anyway and I hope y'all enjoyed reading it. I hope everyone was in character and everything was well-written. Next chapter takes place during Season 1 Episode 18: The Waterbending Master, which is super-duper exciting, and it will be posted on Saturday so stay tuned for that!
Special THANKS to everyone that faved and/or alerted! I lurves you guys and think you are all awesome!
SPECIAL MENTIONS!
Dream lighting: Awesome, I'm glad you like Xia and I hope you like this chapter too!
LadyAmazon: Haha, yup, poor ZuZu missing his annoying 'pest.' I hope you like this chapter!
Molly Grace 16: Thanks, I'm glad you liked the last chapter! Haha, my sister thought it would be pretty awesome too, I just hope I'm able to make it as awesomely epic as it sounds. Ooh, that's a good question and one that will be answered in that chapter! XD Anyhooties, I hope you like this chapter!
Angel2u: Yup! I love awesome-sauce! Anyhooties, I hope you liked this chapter!
Anonymous Guest: Yuppers! I hope you like this chapter!
Anonymous Guest: That's awesome! Have you posted the story on this site? I'm always looking for more AtLA stories to read. Anyhooties, I hope you liked this chapter!
88dragon06: Thank you, I'm glad you liked the last chapter. Phew, I'm happy no one was OOC in the last chapter, I was, as always, worried about that. Haha, I thought that would be a fun little twist, they don't necessarily like each other yet but they can't help but think about each other. Kinda like when you have the It's a Small Worldsong stuck in your head. Anyhooties, I hope you liked this chapter!
02: Thanks, I'm glad you like Xia, she's definitely one of my new favorite OCs that I've created. Sorry there weren't any Xiabug (or Zukia if you prefer) moments in this chapter, there will be some coming up soon though! Anyhooties, I hope you liked this chapter!
Vicky Lexi Bennett: Haha, just a little bit. Like thismuch –holds fingers a few millimeters apart-
Ah, yeah, The Deserter isn't one of my favorites either, but I think it's not necessarily a filler chapter since it sets the stage for why Zuko was always supposed to be Aang's Firebending teacher, ya know? Anyhooties, I hope you liked this chapter!
Mira SeverusSirius Black-Snape: Haha, flame brain, that's funny. XD Anyhooties, I hope you liked this chapter!