Zuko jumped to his feet in a panic.
"Hey! What are you doing sit down," Katara screeched.
Zuko took the liberty of ignoring her. He was much too busy wrestling Aang for Appa's reigns.
With one sharp tug to the right, Appa turned off course. Sokka cursed the spirits as they all clung to the saddle to avoid being thrown over the edge.
Aang fell to the back of the saddle and barely avoided plummeting to the open sea.
They straightened out very quickly after the complete 180.
"What the heck blue," Sokka yelled.
The blue spirit stepped off the bison's head and back into the saddle. From the wide-eyed looks of Katara and Aang and Sokka's angry expression, he knew he had made a mistake.
Day one traveling with the avatar and I've already screwed up... great... just great.
In a desperate attempt to communicate with the others Zuko stuck out his arm and pointed to the temple fading into the distance.
He shook his head.
The three teenagers stared at the blue spirit in something akin to shock. It was pretty unnerving.
Three years without socializing made Zuko unused to being looked at. In his experience being seen equated to a world of pain.
"Why would you do that," Aang cried out finally breaking the silence. "I'm trying to go home!"
Zuko cringed. Not good.
He held up his hands in what he hoped was placating gesture.
"Aang," Katara said soothingly, "I'm sure Blue has a good reason for–"
"Trying to kill us."
Katara glared at her brother. Sokka merely shrugged in response.
The blue spirit was panicking. They think I'm trying to kill them!
"Blue isn't trying to kill us."
She turned to face him.
"You have a reason for not wanting us to go there, don't you?"
Blue simply nodded. The relief of Katara understanding him was immense.
Zuko briefly remembered his visits to the air temples before pushing the memories from his mind.
Sokka shared a look with his sister.
"Aang," he began slowly, "maybe we should skip the temple."
"What! No!"
Blue cringed again.
"My people could be there. They could have left clues! The fire nation can't have... they have to be alive."
Sokka and Katara looked over at blue. He shook his head slowly.
"Aang..."
"No. I need to go there! I need to see for myself."
He walked over the two steps he could in the saddle and gave Zuko a look.
"Are you going to try and stop me?"
The blue spirit moved out of his way.
This isn't going to end well
Sokka knew it wasn't going to be a good day from the second he opened his eyes. He ignored the awful feeling in his gut, brushing it off as still being hungry.
He allowed himself to indulge in Blue's surprisingly good cooking.
When the feeling didn't pass he chalked it up as unease at a man doing a woman's work and being coerced into doing chores.
It wasn't until the newest member of their group jumped over his head and tackled Aang while in midair on the back of their flying bison that Sokka finally listened to what his gut was telling him.
Too bad, he had been too busy clinging to Appa's saddle for dear life to do anything about it.
Sokka made a personal note to scold Blue later. Maybe when they weren't currently flying closer and closer to the air Temple and the bad feeling in his gut-growing at the same rate.
He looked back over at the blue spirit who sat at the back of the saddle with his masked face directed at his lap.
Aang directed Appa back towards the air temple much more smoothly than their personal vigilante.
Sokka wondered what exactly was at the air temple blue didn't want them to find.
He had a sinking suspicion he already knew. All he could hope was that Aang and Katara could handle it.
Appa touched down just inside the courtyard.
"We're here!" Aang jumped out of the saddle.
Katara grabbed his arm.
"Before we go any further, you need to prepare yourself for what you might see. The fire nation is ruthless, they killed my mother."
"I'm telling you they must have escaped."
Sokka looked over at blue who shook his head. The bad feeling in his guy only grew worse.
"Katara is right Aang, you need to prepare for the worst."
They hiked further up the mountain. Every minute only served to make the water tribe boys hunger grow.
He settled for listening to Aang talk about the nomads. The games they played. He listened as Aang told him all about air ball and showed him the court.
By the end of it Sokka wished they hadn't come. Not just because trying to cheer Aang up with air ball was painful.
"We can't hide the truth from him forever katara," Sokka said as his sister covered a fire nation helmet with snow.
Every where they went they found more evidence of the attack. Bodies littered the ground. The fresh mountain air hid the smell, but not in some of the more enclosed spaces.
"When Aang realizes what happened he'll be devastated. I just want to protect him."
"I know, but letting him live in denial will only hurt him in the long run. He deserves the truth."
A few feet away the blue spirit picked up a fire nation helmet. He stared at it for a long time. His mask hid any emotion sokka might have picked up on.
What's up with him.
"Hey guys come to see this," the avatar shouted from up the mountain. They hiked up to see what Aang had found.
Aang gestured to a statue.
"It's Monk Gyatso, the greatest Airbender in the world. He taught me everything."
Blue bowed his head to the statue. Honestly, he gets weirder every minute I know him.
Aang started into the temple.
"Where are you going?"
"There's someone I'm ready to meet."
Aang led them to a large door. It stretches all the way up to the ceiling with a mess of pipes in the center.
"There's no way someone could have survived in there for a hundred years," Katara said.
"It's not impossible. I survived in an iceberg for a hundred years."
"Fair point"
"Maybe whoever's in there will have lots of food. Delicious meat."
Sokka ran to the door and put all his weight against it with the intent to shove it open.
"Uhh, I don't suppose you have a key."
"The key is air bending."
Aang shifted into an air-bending stance. With a gust of wind he unlocked and blew open the door. A musty scent filled the air from years of dust and neglect.
"Statues! Where's the meat!"
Katara examined one of them.
"Who are they?"
"I don't know, but I feel like I know them somehow."
"This one's a water bender!"
"And this one is an Airbender."
Katara gasped.
"Of course, they're the past avatars!"
"Oh come on katara, you don't really believe in that stuff," Sokka said.
"It's true. When the avatar dies he's reborn into the next nation in the Avatar cycle."
The blue spirit stood a few feet away staring at a fire nation statue.
"That's avatar Roku, the avatar before me."
"You were fire nation in a past life! No wonder I didn't trust you at first."
That earned him a glare from blue. Sokka couldn't see beneath the mask but he knew his new friend was giving him the stink eye.
"What?"
Blue raised his hands in an attempt to communicate but any charade game that might have followed the question was interrupted by the sound of footsteps.
The sound echoed through the large room.
Sokka pulled them behind a statue.
"Fire nation keep quiet."
The shadow on the floor approached slowly. Long and dark the shadow gave the twisted appearance of a fire nation soldier. Long horns protruded from the head in the same way the helmets had.
Sokka pulled out his bone club. Beside him blue pulled out his swords.
We can take on one soldier. Blue could probably take on a dozen single-handedly.
Aang peeked around the statue.
"A lemur!"
Blue tiled his head in complete confusion. Sokka looked around the statue as well.
The terrifying shadow with horns belonged to a small furry animal with large ears. The lemur twitched his nose innocently.
"Dinner!"
"Don't listen to him. You're going to be my new pet."
"Not if I catch him first!"
Sokka shoved past Aang and ran to the creature who took off down the hall.
"Hey!" Aang gave chase. "Come back!"
"I want to eat you!"
Aang tripped Sokka with an air ball and raced ahead by running on the wall itself. Sokka stated in disbelief.
"No fair!"
Aang laughed and followed the lemur through the temple. He chased it behind a ratted curtain and stopped dead in his tracks.
The room was littered with skeletons in fire nation armor. The ground was scorched by flames, and the air smelled of decay and death.
Only a few feet away lay one skeleton in air nomad robes. Gyatso's necklace around its neck.
The gang came in behind him. Sokka took in the room with wide eyes. Katara covered her mouth. The blue spirit merely stares at the damage in silence.
"Oh, man..."
Aang fell to his knees crying. Just a few feet away lay the remains of his closest friend. His teacher. The embodiment of all the boy believed in.
The avatar seemed to break. His tattoos lit up and glowed a fierce blue. Around them the wind picked up.
The curtains around the door went flying. The walls collapsed around them and the ceiling itself was thrown off the mountain.
"Aang!"
Katara pushed through the storm and pulled the avatar into her arms.
"I know you're upset," katara cried over the wind.
Sokka and blue clung to the rocks trying not to be blown away.
"I know how painful it is to lose someone you love. Monk Gyatso and the other air benders may be gone, but you still have a family."
Katara clung to him tighter trying not to get thrown off as the hurricane of wind grew stronger.
"Sokka, blue and I, we're your family."
The wind died down a little.
"We aren't going to let anything happen to you," Sokka said, "I promise."
Aangs tattoos stopped glowing and he slumped into katara's arms.
Blue looked around at the room full of corpses and lowered his head.
He knelt in front of Aang and untied his mask. He dropped it by his side.
Sokka clutched katara's arm tighter even as she gasped again.
A large scar covered across his eye and back to his ear into a mangled burned mess. Red and raw and almost pulsing.
What caught their attention the most was how young the blue spirit looked. Not much older than sokka himself. With golden eyes and dark hair.
Blues intent in removing his mask was clear. For the same reason katara mentioning her mother was.
I understand your pain.
Aang pulled blue into a hug and Katara and Sokka joined them.
Katara walked over and put her hand on Aang's shoulder. He stares up at Roku's statue.
"I'm sorry about earlier..."
"It wasn't your fault."
"But you guys were right, and if fire benders found this temple they could have found the others... I really am the last Airbender."
Katara didn't know what to say to that. There wasn't anything to say.
Aang took a shaky breath and looked back up at Roku.
"I don't understand," he said changing the subject, "how is Roku supposed to help me if I can't talk to him."
"Maybe you'll find a way."
Chittering echoed through the room. The lemur came in and gave Sokka an armful of fruits.
"Looks like you found a new friend," Aang said. He scratched the lemur behind the ears.
"What are you going to name him?"
"Momo."
Blue tilted his head. Even without the mask, he didn't show a lot of expressions.
"What do you think Sokka?"
"Can't talk, must eat!"
