Disclaimer: I do not own A:TLA or any of it's characters. The only thing I own is my OC.

Chapter 2:

The Boy in the Iceberg

Alec POV

"It's not getting away from me this time." Sokka said with a determined expression. Then his face turned smug. "Watch and learn, Katara and Alec. This is how you catch a fish."

Katara and I both glared at Sokka. Honestly, I was better at spear-fishing than Sokka. His whole 'I'm gonna show you how it's done' bit could be really annoying. I consoled myself with the fact that he would get the arrogance and sexism kicked out of him by a certain Kyoshi Warrior very soon.

Katara turned back to look over the side of our canoe. She took off one of her gloves, and started moving her hand in a wavy up-and-down motion. A small bubble of water with a fish swimming inside it started floating in the air towards the canoe. Katara was now using both hands to move the bubble. Even though I now lived in a world full of benders, it still amazed me every time I saw it.

"Look! Sokka! Alec!" she said excitedly.

"That's amazing Katara!" I said. I knew it wasn't even a fraction of what she would be capable of later, but everyone has to start somewhere.

"Shh, you two. You're gonna scare it away." Sokka whispered, not even bothering to look at our sister's accomplishment. "Mmm, I can already smell it cookin'."

"But Sokka!" She yelled. "I caught one!"

Sokka was still ignoring her. When the bubble was right over his head, he pulled his spear back, preparing to throw it. The butt of the spear burst Katara's bubble, making her yell out. The fish escaped and Sokka was now covered in freezing cold water. I burst out laughing.

"Why is it," Sokka said in an exasperated tone, "That every time you play with magic water, I get soaked and Alec laughs at me?"

Katara sighed. "It's not magic, it's waterbending, and it's-"

"Yeah, yeah," Sokka cut her off. This conversation had happened many times in the four months I lived in the South Pole, and I suspect it had been going on for years before that. "An ancient art unique to our culture, blah blah blah. Look, I'm just saying if I had weird powers I'd keep my weirdness to myself."

"You're calling me weird?" she said incredulously. "I'm not the one who makes muscles at myself every time I see my reflection in the water." Meanwhile, Sokka was doing just that.

"She has a point." I said. "I'm in better shape than you are, Sokka, and I don't do that shi-"

"LANGUAGE!" They both yelled. That was something I had yet to get used to. My mouth was pretty dirty by the standards of this world. One particularly hard hit from Sokka during a sparring match in front of the village about a month ago had taught all the precious, innocent children several new words. Gran Gran was not amused and had washed my mouth out with soap made from seaweed and tiger seal blubber. Not a pleasant experience.

Suddenly the canoe jerked. We were being pulled by a current. That wouldn't be so bad if we weren't surrounded by ice. Sokka started paddling furiously in a vain attempt to get the canoe under control.

"Watch out!" Katara yelled. There was a lot of ice in front of us with only a narrow path through it. "Go left. GO LEFT!" Sokka made a decent effort, but the boat was eventually crushed between two small icebergs. We barely managed to bail out onto one of the icebergs in time. Eventually we looked around. We were stranded on an iceberg, surrounded by even more icebergs, and we had no boat and no way out. If I didn't know what was coming, I would have been extremely worried.

"You call that left?" Katara said bitingly.

"You don't like my steering?" Sokka said sarcastically. "Well, maybe you should have just 'waterbended' us out of the ice."

"So it's my fault?" She asked angrily.

"I knew we should have left you home. Leave it to a girl to screw things up." Sokka said, demonstrating all the problems people had with Season One Sokka in a single sentence.

In any other circumstance, I would have called him out on this. It wasn't Katara's fault that we ended up in that current. The thing that really annoyed me is that if I didn't let this argument play out, we wouldn't find Aang. I just decided to stay quiet.

Katara's eye started to twitch. "You are the most sexist, immature, nut-brained...ugh I'm embarrassed to be related to you!" she yelled throwing her hands back. A large crack appeared in an iceberg behind her. Sokka started to look worried. I just backed away slowly.

"Ever since Mom died, I've been doing all the work around camp while you've been off playing soldier!" She continued. "Alec does more work in the village than you, and he's only been here for four months!"

"Uh, Katara…" Sokka said quietly, trying to calm her down. I knew it was futile. Once Katara got on a rant, your only hope was to stay quiet and pray to the spirits for your survival.

"I even wash all the clothes!" Katara yelled, completely ignoring Sokka. "Have you ever smelled your dirty socks? Let me tell you. NOT! PLEASANT!" She threw her arms back again. Two more big cracks appeared in the iceberg.

"Katara! Settle down!" Sokka yelled in fear.

"NO! That's it, I'm done helping you! From now on, you're on YOUR OWN!" She threw her hands back one last time. Massive cracks covered the whole iceberg, and suddenly it fell into the water, creating a massive wave that pushed our iceberg back a few dozen feet.

"Okay, you've gone from weird to freakish, Katara." Sokka said.

"You mean I did that?" Said Katara, her voice full of wonder.

"You sure did." I said with a hint of pride in my voice. "It was scary, but pretty damn impressive."

Suddenly, a light blue glow showed up in the surface of the water. Before we could brace ourselves, a gigantic sphere of ice floated up to the surface.

"Finally." I thought to myself.

We stared at the iceberg. I saw two shapes inside, a large, six-legged animal, and a small boy with arrow tattoos sitting in a meditative pose. Suddenly his eyes opened. His eyes, like his tattoos, were glowing with white light.

"He's alive!" Katara yelled. She grabbed Sokka's club from his back. "We have to help!"

I grabbed my club and ran after Katara.

"Katara, Alec, get back!" Sokka yelled in a concerned voice. "We don't know what that thing is."

"It's a boy who needs our help Sokka." I said "I want to help him just like you helped me."

Sokka looked unconvinced. I ignored his skepticism and followed Katara to the iceberg. She and I swung our clubs at it, alternating hits on the same spot to break it faster. After a few hits, the ice broke, and a massive gust of air came out from the ice, nearly blowing us into the water. The rest of the ice exploded outwards, and a massive beam of light shot into the sky. The wind howled around us, as if we were in the center of a storm.

Finally the wind calmed down, and the three of us stood up. The ice sphere had been completely destroyed, leaving what resembled a bowl in it's place. Sokka was still on edge. Katara was clinging on to Sokka. I was staring in awe. This was so much more amazing than a cartoon.

Then, the boy climbed up the ledge. His eyes and tattoos were still glowing. They slowly faded, and the boy looked like he was about to collapse off the ledge. He fell forwards. Katara gasped and ran forwards, barely catching him before he hit the ground. Katara held up his head and looked at him with wonder. Sokka walked up to him suspiciously and started poking the butt of his spear into the bald boy's head. I grabbed the spear and pulled it back. Sokka looked at me before I looked back at him shaking my head.

Katara set the boy down on his back on a curve in the ice so that he was sitting at an angle. He groaned softly before slowly opening his eyes. When he saw Katara, he gasped and his eyes opened even wider. Katara's eyes widened and her mouth opened slightly with a smile.

"I need to ask you something." the boy said in a tired voice.

"What?" Katara asked.

"Please, come closer." the boy said.

"What is it?" Katara said. I barely suppressed a laugh. I knew the punchline to this joke by heart.

The boy's eyes suddenly opened wide. "Will you go penguin sledding with me?" He asked, all tiredness gone from his voice. I couldn't help it, I snickered.

"Uh, sure. I guess." Katara said with a surprised tone. The boy suddenly seemed to float himself up to a standing position. He started looking around, clearly confused. Sokka leaped back in shock.

"What's going on here?" the boy asked, rubbing his head in confusion. Sokka couldn't take it anymore.

"You tell us!" Sokka exclaimed. "How'd you get in the ice? And why aren't you frozen?" he punctuated that last question by poking the boy with his spear.

"I'm not sure." the boy said while gently pushing Sokka's spear away from his body. Suddenly there was a low groan from the other side of the ledge. The boy gasped and scrambled up to the top of the ledge. Then he jumped and slid down the other side. Katara, Sokka and I walked around.

"Appa!" we heard the boy shout. "Are you alright? Wake up, buddy." Then we heard the boy grunting with exertion. When we came around the edge, we saw the six-legged creature suddenly open it's mouth and give the boy a lick. Even though I knew what to expect, seeing a giant flying bison suddenly right in front of me was shocking. Both my siblings dropped their jaws in shock.

"Holy shit." I muttered before I could stop my self.

"You know," Sokka said, not taking his eyes off the sight in front of him, "Since this has been a really weird day, I'm gonna let you have that."

The bison stood up on it's six legs. Sokka was curious. "What is that thing?" he asked.

"This is Appa, my flying bison." the boy said eagerly.

Sokka was unconvinced. "Right," he said sarcastically "And this is Katara, and this is Alec," he said indicating each of us, "My flying siblings."

Appa suddenly reared back his giant head. I knew what was coming and I wanted no part of it. I ran and took cover behind the ice wall. Appa let out a massive sneeze, and Sokka got covered from head to toe in green snot. I burst out laughing and walked back out into the open. Sokka screamed and desperately tried to wipe off the snot.

"Don't worry," the boy said brightly, "It'll wash out." Suddenly he looked at me. I was concerned. Did he somehow know I wasn't from this world?

"If you don't mind me asking," he said, "You don't look like you're related to those two. Why is that?"

I blinked. Of course that would be a question. I did have brown hair, but I also had light skin and brown eyes. I didn't look Water Tribe at all. I probably looked like some mishmash of all three remaining nations.

"I'm adopted." I said. "I was found outside the South Pole four months ago. The villagers nursed me back to health, and I've been living there ever since. Those two adopted me into their family two months ago."

"Neat." he said with a smile. "So, do you guys live around here?" he asked.

"Don't answer that!" Sokka yelled, shoving the spear in his face. "Did you see that crazy bolt of light? He was probably trying to signal the Fire Navy."

"Oh yeah, I'm sure he's a spy for the Fire Navy." Katara said sarcastically. "You can tell by that 'evil' look in his eye." The boy did his best disarming smile in response.

"The paranoid one is my brother, Sokka." Katara said. "And you already know Alec's name." I smiled and gave the boy a nod. "You never told us your name."

"I'm aah," he started, "Aah, aah, AAH-CHOO!" he gave an enormous sneeze and shot at least a dozen feet into the sky. He then fell down the edge and slid to a stop in front of us. "I'm Aang." he said warmly before rubbing his nose.

"You just sneezed," Sokka said in an amazed tone, "And flew ten feet into the air."

"Really?" Aang asked. "It felt higher than that."

Katara gasped. "You're an airbender!" she exclaimed with wonder.

"Sure am." Aang confirmed.

"Giant light beams, flying bison, airbenders," Sokka said, "I think I've got Midnight Sun Madness. I'm going home to where stuff makes sense."

"How?" I asked. "Your 'expert navigation skills' wrecked our canoe." I said, my voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Well if you guys are stuck, Appa and I can give you a lift." Aang offered before jumping up on Appa's head.

"We'd love a ride, thanks." Katara said with gratitude. She ran over and started to climb into the saddle on Appa's back. I started walking over, too.

"Oh no," Sokka said, "I am not getting on that fluffy snot monster."

"Are you hoping some other kind of monster will come along and give you a ride home?" Katara asked. "You know, before you freeze to death?"

Sokka still looked unconvinced. I decided to throw in my opinion.

"Sokka," I said in a serious tone, "We can't stay here. Even though I'm sure Aang didn't mean to, that light beam probably signaled everyone for miles, friend and foe." Sokka's face suddenly had a hint of fear. "If we stay here, there's no telling which will find us first. We need to go, now."

Sokka sighed in resignation before he climbed aboard.


"Okay," Aang said excitedly, "First time flyers, hold on tight! Appa, yip yip!"

Appa jumped up, but suddenly belly-flopped into the water. Not exactly impressive, but I knew Appa had an excuse.

"Come on Appa," Aang said before cracking the reins again, "Yip yip!"

"Wow," Sokka said in a voice so heavy with sarcasm I could almost taste it, "That was truly amazing." Katara glared at him before looking back at Aang.

"Appa's just tired." Aang said. "A little rest, and he'll be soaring through the sky. You'll see."

Katara was about to turn around when she noticed that Aang was still looking at her with a smile.

"Why are you smiling at me like that?" she asked. I smirked. I had forgotten that Aang had started crushing on Katara almost literally at first sight. Those two were so adorable.

"Oh," Aang said quickly before averting his gaze, "I was smiling?"

Sokka made a disgusted sound. I rolled my eyes at him. For someone who definitely got hot-and-heavy with Suki, he was pretty squeamish about anyone else in a relationship. Hypocrite.


A few hours later, Katara went up to speak to Aang, who was lying on his back on Appa's head.

"Hey." she said.

"Hey," the airbender replied, "Whatcha thinking about?"

"I guess I was wondering," Katara began, "You being an airbender and all, if you had any idea what happened to the Avatar?"

Aang's eyes went wide. "Uh, no." he said hesitantly. "I didn't know him. I mean, I knew people that knew him, but I didn't, sorry."

I shook my head. Aang was a such a terrible liar. I was surprised Katara didn't see right through him immediately.

"Okay," she said, "Just curious. Good night!"

"Sleep tight!" Aang said before turning around.


I was with Sokka when Katara went to wake up Aang back in the village. I was busy sharpening my spear when she emerged from Aang's tent dragging the airbender behind her. The entire village was assembled to meet him. That wasn't surprising. Aang was probably the most interesting thing to show up here in years. He was certainly more interesting than my appearance. I wasn't a member of a dead nation, after all.

"Aang, this is the entire village." Katara introduced. "Entire village, Aang." Aang gave a polite bow. A few of the mothers pulled their children back with worried looks on their faces. Aang was confused by this.

"Uh, why are they all looking at me like that?" Aang asked Katara. "Did Appa sneeze on me?"

Gran Gran stepped forward. "Well, no one has seen an airbender in a hundred years." she said. "We thought they were extinct, until my granddaughter and grandsons found you."

"Extinct?" Aang asked with disbelief.

"Aang, this is my grandmother." Katara introduced.

"Call me Gran Gran." Gran Gran said plainly.

Sokka walked up to Aang and grabbed his staff. "What is this, a weapon?" Sokka asked skeptically. "You can't stab anything with this."

Aang pulled the staff back into his hand with a gust of air. "It's not for stabbing." Aang explained "It's for airbending." Aang suddenly deployed the wings of his glider to the delight of the kids.

"Magic trick!" a little girl shouted with glee. "Do it again!"

"Not magic," Aang said, "Airbending. It lets me control the air currents around my glider and fly."

"You know, last time I checked," Sokka said, "Humans can't fly."

"Check again." Aang said smugly before taking off with a massive jump. He then flew over the village and did several loops and twists. It was very impressive...until he crashed into Sokka's watchtower because he couldn't take his eyes off Katara. I shook my head and chuckled. This kid had it bad.

Aang managed to yank his head out of the tower's wall and fell into a heap in the snow. Katara and Sokka ran to check on him. Well, Katara was checking on Aang. Sokka had other concens.

"My watchtower!" Sokka's voice cracked in despair.

"That was amazing!" Katara praised Aang while helping him back to his feet. Sokka was checking on his watchtower when another pile of snow fell down and buried him.

"Great." Sokka grumbled. "You're an airbender, Katara's a waterbender, together you can just waste time all day long." Sokka extracted himself from the snow.

"You're a waterbender!" Aang exclaimed to Katara with amazement.

"Well, sort of." Katara said. "Not yet." Gran Gran decided that everyone had been distracted from their chores for too long.

"Alright, no more playing." Gran Gran said. "Come on, Katara, you have chores." Gran Gran dragged Katara away from Aang. I went to help Sokka train the kids.


Sokka and I were standing in front of all the little boys of the Southern Water Tribe.

"Now men," Sokka began seriously, "It's important that you show no fear when you face a firebender. In the Water Tribe, we fight to the last man standing." he said while raising his club in some kind of warrior gesture. "For without courage, how can we call ourselves men?" he asked dramatically. I rolled my eyes. I knew Sokka was taking the threat of the Fire Nation seriously, but he could be such a drama queen sometimes. Besides, there was no way that these kids could understand how dangerous the Fire Nation was at this point in their lives. All of them had been born after the last Fire Nation raid.

Sure enough, all of the boys had blank expressions on their faces.

"I gotta pee!" one of them shouted while raising his hand.

"Listen," Sokka said in an exasperated tone, "Until your fathers return from the war, they're counting on you to be the men of this Tribe, and that means no potty breaks!"

"But I really gotta go." the boy insisted.

Sokka gave a heavy sigh "Okay," he said, utterly defeated, "Who else has to go?"

All of them raised their hands. I smirked. Sokka facepalmed. Katara walked up to us.

"Have you seen Aang?" she asked "Gran Gran said he disappeared over an hour ago."

Aang suddenly crawled out of the outhouse. "Wow!" he exclaimed, pointing his thumb over his shoulder. "Everything freezes in there!" I grimaced. I knew his struggle. Doing that in the freezing cold of the South Pole had taken a lot of getting used to.

"Ugh!" Sokka made an irritated noise. "Katara, get him out of here." he said. "This lesson is for warriors only."

Meanwhile, the kids were using Appa's tail as a slide. To be fair, that did look like a lot of fun. Katara and I laughed. Sokka was not amused. He ran towards Aang and Appa.

"Stop! Stop it right now!" Sokka yelled before turning to face Aang. "What's wrong with you?! We don't have time for fun and games with a war going on!"

"What war?" Aang asked before jumping down from Appa. "What are you talking about?"

Sokka raised an eyebrow. "You're kidding, right?"

Suddenly Aang focused on something behind Sokka.

"PENGUIN!" Aang yelled before darting off using his airbending to leave a snow cloud behind him. I facepalmed. I forgot that despite Aang's power, he was still a twelve-year-old kid who was also the walking definition of ADHD.

"He's kidding, right?" Sokka asked both me and Katara. I shook my head.

"I don't think he is." I said lowly. I knew he didn't know, but I couldn't say anything without giving my story away.

"I'm gonna go after him." Katara said.

I nodded. "I'll stay here."


Sokka and I were sharpening our spears back in the village. Sokka had a frown on his face. I knew something was up with him. He only had that look when he was thinking hard. Incidentally, he didn't have that look that often.

"What is it?" I asked.

"It's that kid." he said turning to face me. "How could he possibly not know about the war? Didn't the Fire Nation wipe out the airbenders?"

"Clearly they missed at least one." I pointed out. "Besides, we don't know how long he was frozen for." Well, I did, but I wasn't going to tell Sokka. "I have a feeling he was in that ice for a very long time."

"Whatever." he replied. "I just hope he leaves soon. He's distracting the kids and Katara. I don't trust him."

"You don't trust anyone with our sister." I deadpanned. "I'm pretty sure you still had doubts about me until you made it so that Katara and I could never possibly get married."

"That's true." he conceded. I rolled my eyes.

"You don't have to worry." I said. "I'm sure he'll leave soon enough."

Sokka turned to me. "What makes you think that?" he asked.

I mentally cursed myself. I had almost given myself away. I quickly thought of an excuse.

"Well," I began, "I remember hearing stories about the Air Nomads when I was a kid."

"What's your point?" Sokka said.

"The stories say that the Air Nomads believe that all life is sacred." I said. "Because of this belief, Air Nomads don't eat meat."

Sokka's eyes went wide. "They don't eat meat?" he whispered in horror. Vegetarianism was a completely foreign concept to him.

"No, they don't." I confirmed. "Now think about it. How many things do we have to eat here that aren't meat?"

Sokka rubbed his chin in thought. "The only thing I can think of is," suddenly his jaw dropped in horror. "Sea prunes." he whispered.

I nodded. "Exactly." I said. "If the only thing I could eat here was sea prunes, I would flee as soon as possible."

"Me too." Sokka said completely seriously.

Suddenly there was a bright flash of light behind me. I turned around and saw a massive flare from the old Fire Nation ship that was wrecked a few miles away from the village.

"That's not good." I said.

"I knew we shouldn't have trusted that kid!" Sokka yelled.


Aang and Katara walked back to the village slowly. Guilt covering their faces. The kids were delighted to see Aang again and gave him a group hug. Everyone else was worried.

"I knew it!" Sokka said sharply while pointing at Aang. "You signaled the Fire Navy with that flare. You're leading them straight to us, aren't you?" he accused.

Katara jumped to the airbender's defense. "Aang didn't do anything. It was an accident."

"Yeah." Aang chimed in, "We were on the ship and there was this booby trap and well, we boobied right into it." he finished with a guilty voice.

"Katara," Gran Gran said shaking her head, "You shouldn't have gone on that ship. Now we could all be in danger."

"Don't blame Katara, I brought her there." Aang said quickly. He looked down at his feet. "It's my fault."

"Aha!" Sokka yelled dramatically. "The traitor confesses. Warriors, away from the enemy. The foreigner is banished from our village!"

I rolled my eyes and smacked Sokka upside the head.

"Ow!" he yelled. "Alec, what did you do that for?" he whined.

"You're being an idiot and letting the power your dad entrusted to you go to your head." I said. "Think about it. Would an airbender be helping the Fire Nation in the war?" I asked.

"Alec's right, Sokka." Katara added. "Aang is not our enemy. Don't you see? Aang's brought us something that we haven't had in a long time: fun."

"Fun?! We can't fight firebenders with fun!" Sokka exclaimed.

"You should try it sometime." Aang said brightly. I groaned and pinched the bridge of my nose. Aang was not helping his case here.

"Get out of our village." Sokka said firmly. "Now!"

"Grandmother please," Katara begged Gran Gran. "Don't let Sokka do this."

"Katara, you knew going on that ship was forbidden." Gran Gran said plainly. "Sokka is right, I think it's best if the airbender leaves."

"Fine!" Katara yelled, "Then I'm banished too! Come on, Aang, let's go." she said before dragging Aang towards Appa.

"Where do you think you're going?" Sokka inquired.

"To find a waterbender." Katara said while barely looking back. "Aang is taking me to the North Pole."

"I am?" Aang asked cluelessly. "Great!" he said happily.

"Katara!" Sokka yelled. "Would you really choose him over your tribe?" he asked. "Your own family?"

Katara stopped. She was clearly conflicted about this. Aang stepped closer to her.

"Katara," he said gently, "I don't want to come between you and your family."

"So, you're leaving the South Pole?" Katara asked sadly. "This is goodbye?"

"Thanks for penguin-sledding with me." Aang said with sincere gratitude.

"Where will you go?" she asked.

"I guess I'll go back home and look for the airbenders." he said. I winced. It won't be pleasant for him when he finds out the truth. "Wow," he continued, "I haven't cleaned my room in a hundred years. Not looking forward to that."

Aang jumped onto Appa's head. "It was nice meeting everyone." he said sincerely.

"Let's see your bison fly now, airboy." Sokka taunted.

Aang tried to get Appa to fly, but the bison was still too tired to airbend himself off the ground.

"Yeah, I thought so." Sokka taunted again. I smacked him upside the head for the second time in a day.

"What?" he asked indignantly.

"You already banished him." I growled. "You don't need to taunt him. Now you're just being cruel." I was angrier at him than I probably should have been, but the idea of taunting someone after banishing them, especially in this world, rubbed me the wrong way because of what happened to Zuko. Speaking of the angsty prince, we had to get ready for him. He would be here soon.

Gran Gran tried in vain to comfort Katara, but Katara wasn't having it and stormed off to her tent.


Sokka and I were putting on our armor and picking up our weapons. Sokka was worried. I didn't blame him. He didn't have the knowledge of the future that I did. He was expecting a fight to the death, while I knew that we just had to hold on until Aang showed up.

"Do you want some war paint?" Sokka asked before offering me a stone bowl of inky black liquid. "I have plenty."

"No thanks." I said. "If I'm going to make the Fire Nation fear me, I want them to know exactly who they should be afraid of."

Sokka smirked. Then his face fell.

"How long do you think Katara will stay mad at me?" he asked glumly.

"That depends." I replied. "You know her better than I do. How long can she hold a grudge?"

Sokka's eyes widened in fear. "I'm doomed." he whispered. I laughed.

Suddenly the lamp in our tent started shaking. Sokka and I looked at each other.

"They're here." we both said.


Sokka and I stood on the wall, clubs drawn. The ground began to shake. The women and children started running and screaming. The watchtower collapsed into a pile of snow. Then, out of the fog, a giant iron ship emerged, heading straight for us. It looked a lot bigger in person than it did in the show.

"Oh shit." I whispered. Sokka didn't even bother to tell me off. He was even more scared than I was.

The ship rammed into the wall and broke through before coming to a stop, knocking both Sokka and me to the ground. Suddenly, the front of the ship lowered down and turned into a ramp. There were now seven soldiers walking down the ramp towards us. I knew the one in the front quite well.

Zuko looked about how I expected, with one major difference. In the cartoon, his scar was simply two different shades of red on his face. Here, in real life, the scar was much more detailed, and ugly. It was wrinkled, a bit like a scab, and shiny. The color was much more uniform in the scar as well. I was briefly thankful that it still didn't look anything like the scar in the movie-that-shall-not-be-named. I didn't want any reminder of that abomination from my world.

Before I could stop my brother, he decided to charge Zuko in a direct attack. I stayed behind to assess the situation. When Sokka reached Zuko, the prince kicked Sokka's club out of his hand before kicking Sokka into the snow. I ran up to Sokka and dug him out quickly. Zuko ignored me and walked up to the villagers.

"Where are you hiding him?" he asked. If the situation wasn't so serious I would have rolled my eyes.

"They don't know who you're talking about, idiot." I thought to myself. "Why does anyone bother playing the fucking pronoun game?"

Zuko pulled Gran Gran from the crowd. "He'd be about this age. Master of all elements?" he said. The villagers still didn't know who he was talking about. Zuko pushed Gran Gran back into the crowd before sending an arc of fire just over their heads.

"Sokka," I whispered to my brother, "Distract and attack." I said, naming one of our favorite combo moves we had come up with.

Sokka looked at me and nodded. "I'll distract," he said, "And you attack. I'm counting on you."

Sokka got up and grabbed his club from the ground, running at Zuko with a war cry. Zuko ducked and Sokka was sent flying over his head before landing on his ass. As soon as Zuko turned around I made my move. I ran at him silently. Zuko didn't see me coming because he was busy shooting a fireball at Sokka. I reached him and put him in a full nelson, trying to wrestle the prince to the ground. Zuko managed to reach and grab my head, and then threw me off his back in a surprising feat of strength. I landed several feet away on my ass, and I couldn't get to my feet fast enough.

Zuko looked incredibly pissed. I was starting to think I had bitten off more than I could chew. Then Zuko shot a fireball at me.

Shit.

This was going to hurt. I saw the fireball coming at me almost in slow motion. I threw my hands in front of my face in a desperate bid to protect myself, eyes wide with fear.

Then something completely unexpected happened.

A fireball shot out from my hands and collided with Zuko's canceling out his attack.

What...the...fuck.

My jaw dropped. Zuko's jaw dropped, Sokka's jaw dropped. Katara's jaw dropped. The villagers' jaws dropped. I'm pretty sure Zuko's soldiers' jaws dropped too, but they were wearing masks.

Zuko narrowed his eyes and shot another fireball at me. I threw a punch and a fireball shot out of my fist, negating his attack again.

Well, that proved it wasn't a fluke, I was officially a firebender. How? Why? Questions for later. I stood in front of the villagers, and started throwing fireballs at Zuko. The gap between our skill levels was immediately visible. He was dodging with ease and didn't bother attacking me back. I started running out of energy before too long.

"You have no idea what you're doing, do you?" he asked.

"No," I admitted. "But I'm doing everything I can to protect my friends and family."

Before Zuko could throw an attack, he was suddenly bowled over by a penguin-sledding Aang.

Aang slid to a stop in front of us. He smiled brightly.

"Hey Katara, hey Alec, hey Sokka!" he greeted warmly. I shook my head with a smile. This kid's positive attitude was almost unbelievable given the current situation.

"Hey Aang." Sokka said in a slightly bewildered voice. "Thanks for coming."

Aang looked over at Zuko, who had gotten back to his feet at this point. "Looking for me?" Aang asked him seriously.

"You're the airbender?" Zuko said in disbelief. "You're the Avatar?"

"Aang?" Katara said with wide eyes.

"No way." Sokka said in shock.

I just smirked. The cat owl was out of the bag now.

Aang and Zuko began circling each other. Zuko decided to start trash-talking.

"I've spent years preparing for this encounter." he said. "Training. Meditating. You're just a child!"

Aang looked confused. "Well, you're just a teenager." he replied.

I snorted. Aang hadn't learned firebending yet and he was already roasting people without even trying. I was so proud.

Zuko started shooting fireballs at Aang. Aang deflected them by spinning his staff rapidly. One fireball got pretty close and nearly burned some of the villagers. Aang looked back at us, and then looked at Zuko.

"If I go with you, will you promise to leave everyone alone?" Aang asked.

Zuko looked at Aang, and then he looked at me. I had a bad feeling about this.

"Only if the firebender also surrenders." Zuko said. Shit. "He's obviously a traitor to the Fire Nation, and he needs to face justice for his treason."

"I've never set foot in the Fire Nation in my life." I said quickly. Then I turned and looked at the villagers. They were looking at me with confusion and more than a little fear.

"But," I continued, "To protect my friends and my adopted family, I will go with you. Just let me say goodbye to them."

Zuko nodded. "I agree to your terms." he said. "Just make it quick."

I turned to my family. "Katara, Sokka, Gran Gran," I began, "I swear to you, I had no idea I was a firebender. I just found out when you did. I don't know how I can make you believe me. But I want to thank you for saving my life, and making me a part of your family."

Sokka looked at me. "I believe you." he said. "If you were a traitor, you would have shot off the flare on that ruined ship months ago. I wish you didn't have to go."

I gave my brother a hug. Gran Gran walked up next.

"I will miss you child." Gran Gran said before throwing me in a hug. "Please do try to get a handle on that mouth of yours."

I rolled my eyes. "Gran Gran. I'm going to the Fire Nation." I said. "I plan on telling them exactly how I feel about them. Using all the words I know."

"In that case," she said with an amused twinkle in her eye, "I think I can look the other way."

"Goodbye, Gran Gran." I gave her a much bigger hug, because I knew I wouldn't see her again anytime soon, unlike my adopted siblings.

Katara was still to shocked to say anything, but I could tell by her eyes that she didn't hate me for my bending. That was a relief. I gave her a hug and then walked over to the Fire Nation soldiers. Aang and I were grabbed by one soldier each and pushed towards the ship.

"No, Aang, Alec, don't do this!" Katara yelled sadly.

We turned our heads to reassure her. "Don't worry Katara, we'll be fine." I said.

"Take care of Appa for me until we get back." Aang said.

"Head a course to the Fire Nation!" Zuko yelled. "I'm going home."

Aang and I walked up the ramp onto the ship. The ramp hissed as it was lifted up behind us. I took the opportunity to whisper to Aang.

"If you come up with a way to escape," I muttered lowly so only he could hear, "Please take me with you."

Aang gave me a small nod.


Aang and I were up on the deck of Zuko's ship with our hands tied behind our backs. We were standing there along with the prince, three nondescript soldiers, and my second-favorite character in the show, Iroh. Zuko was examining Aang's staff. Iroh was looking at me with a puzzled face. He turned to his nephew.

"Prince Zuko, who is this other person?" he asked. "Why did you capture someone else alongside the Avatar?"

"He's a firebender, uncle." Zuko said, not taking his eyes off of Aang's staff. "He's clearly a traitor to the Fire Nation. I'm bringing him to justice."

"I told you," I said with an eye roll. "I've never set foot in the Fire Nation. How can I betray a country I never belonged to?" I asked pointedly.

Zuko ignored my protests and then addressed Aang. "This staff will make an excellent gift for my father." he said. "I suppose you wouldn't know of fathers, being raised by monks."

I bristled at that comment. "Maybe he would know of fathers if Sozin hadn't committed genocide." I spat bitterly. Zuko ignored me, but Iroh winced. I could tell that he was troubled by the sins of his ancestors.

"Take the Avatar and the Firebender to the prison hold." he ordered before turning to face Iroh. "And take this to my quarters." he said to his uncle.

While Aang and I were being escorted away by the two soldiers behind us, I heard Iroh ask the last soldier to take Aang's staff to Zuko's quarters for him. I snickered. Classic Iroh, never change.


Aang and I were walking down the hallway below decks. One soldier was in front of Aang, and the other was behind me.

"So," Aang suddenly said to the Fire Nation soldiers, "I guess you've never fought an airbender before, I bet I could take you both with my hands tied behind my back." he bragged.

"Silence." the soldier in front said. We stopped in front of a cell door. The one in front started inserting a key into a lock. Aang suddenly tensed.

"Brace yourself." he whispered to me. I barely managed to get ready in time. Aang blew out a massive gust of air, knocking the soldier in front of us into the door, knocking him unconscious. The recoil sent both Aang and me shooting back into the soldier behind us, and the stairs behind him. I cushioned Aang's impact. The soldier cushioned my impact. The soldier had no such cushion, and was knocked out cold.

While this was happening, I tried to concentrate and burn away my bindings. At first, nothing happened. Then I tried to remember what I was thinking about when I shot fire at Zuko. I had been desperate to protect myself, and the people I had come to love. Suddenly, I could feel heat in my wrists. The bindings burned away. I desperately rifled through the pockets of the soldier behind me, and found a small knife. Perfect.

"Aang, come here, and let me cut those bindings off." I said urgently.

The young airbender shot me a confused look. "Why can't you just burn mine away like yours?" he asked.

"I literally just found out I was a firebender this morning." I explained. "I don't know to burn your bindings without also burning you."

Aang nodded and turned his back to me. I quickly cut his bindings with the knife. Aang rubbed his wrists.

"We've got to get my glider back and then find a way out of here." Aang said with alarm.

"Yeah," I said. "Keep in mind, we've got about five seconds before they realize something is up, so we shouldn't bother with stealth. Also, I can't run as fast as you or dodge around these guys with airbending. Our best hope is if you just knock them down with air blasts and we keep running."

Aang gave me a nod. "Okay. Let's do this."


We ran through several corridors, mowed down at least a dozen soldiers, and checked three rooms before we saw Aang's staff leaning against a desk in a well-furnished room. As soon as we entered, the door slammed behind us. I turned around and mentally facepalmed. I forgot that Zuko had managed to lure Aang, and now me, into a trap.

"Looks like I underestimated you two." Zuko said. He then shot a fireball at us. Aang dodged to the left, and I dodged to the right. Thankfully Zuko focused most of his attacks on Aang. There was no way I'd be able to keep up if Zuko decided to fight me seriously.

Finally, Aang managed to wrap Zuko up in one of the tapestries hanging from the wall. This gave Aang enough time to grab his staff before Zuko could burn the tapestry away. Zuko had no chance. Using his staff, Aang airbended the mattress on the floor and smashed Zuko into the wall. Zuko fell on the mattress in a daze. Aang then delivered the coup de grâce and airbended both Zuko and the mattress into the ceiling. I winced. That had to hurt.

Aang and I fled the room and ended up on the bridge. We ran out the door, passing a very confused helmsman in the process. Aang looked over his shoulder at me.

"Get ready to jump, and grab onto my legs!" he yelled. I nodded.

Aang threw his glider like a javelin and jumped off the bridge tower, grabbing onto the glider. I ran and jumped with all my might. I managed to reach Aang and grabbed his legs, holding on for dear life.

Then I felt a lot heavier. I looked down and saw Zuko holding onto my legs, looking at me with absolute anger and frustration. The three of us were too heavy for Aang's glider, and we sunk down several feet before falling onto the deck. All of us got up and took battle stances. Well, Aang and Zuko took stances, I just raised my fists awkwardly like some amateur boxer.

Suddenly, I heard a loud growl behind me. Aang and I turned around and stared at the sky. The cavalry had arrived! Appa was flying towards the ship, with Katara at the reins and Sokka in the saddle.

"What is that?" Zuko asked in both shock and wonder.

"Appa!" Aang yelled with delight. I agreed with the airbender. I had never been so happy to see an animal in my life.

Zuko then took advantage of the distraction by shooting several fireballs at Aang, eventually knocking him off the deck and into the water. Then he turned to face me.

"Aang, no!" I heard Katara yell. "Aang! Aang! AANG!"

I knew what was coming next, but I still wasn't prepared for it. A water spout shot up next to the ship, with Aang at its head. He was different. He was no longer the happy-go-lucky airbender. His eyes and tattoos were glowing. He was radiating power.

"The Avatar State." I whispered. I was very happy that I was on Aang's side. I did not want to be on the receiving end of that.

Aang created a circle of water around himself, and then whipped it outward, knocking Zuko off the deck, and sending his soldiers crashing to the deck. I saw the water coming towards me, and I braced myself, but it never hit me. Aang had created a gap in the water so that I didn't get hit.

Well, that was nice of him.

The power must have been too much for Aang, because as soon as he stopped glowing, he collapsed on the ground, unconscious. I grabbed his staff and ran over to him. By this point, Appa had landed on the deck. Katara and Sokka jumped off and ran over to us.

"Aang, Alec! Are you two okay?" my adopted sister asked. I nodded.

"Hey Katara, hey Sokka," Aang said tiredly. "Thanks for coming."

"Well, I couldn't let you two have all the glory." Sokka said with a grin.

"Let's get out of here." I said. We all moved towards Appa. Katara and I helped Aang get on the bison's head. The soldiers were getting up and moving towards us. Katara tried to bend water at them, but ending up freezing Sokka's feet to the deck behind her. I jumped off Appa and ran towards my brother.

"Sokka!" I yelled. "Stay still and don't move!"

Sokka seemed to realize what I was planning. "Are you sure about this?" he asked with trepidation.

"There's no time!" I yelled. I concentrated on protecting my brother and sister, and drew my fist back. I shot it forward. A small fireball came out and melted the ice freezing Sokka to the deck. I then heard a noise behind me. I turned and saw three soldiers frozen from head to toe in ice. Sokka, Katara and I climbed aboard Appa as fast as we could.

"Yip yip! YIP YIP!" Sokka shouted frantically. Appa groaned and took off into the sky. Then I heard a whooshing sound behind us. I turned and saw a massive fireball headed right for us. Aang jumped from Appa's head into the saddle and used his staff to send a massive scythe of air out behind us. The air deflected the fireball and sent it crashing into the ice wall next to the ship, causing part of the wall to crash down. Half of the ship was now buried in ice and snow.

The Gaang and I laughed in victory. We had escaped Zuko, for now. I knew he would be back.


A few hours later, the adrenaline had worn off and Katara turned to face Aang.

"How did you do that?!" she asked, completely amazed. "With the water?! It was the most amazing thing I've ever seen."

"I don't know." Aang said, confused. "I just sort of, did it." I decided to help him out.

"It's called the Avatar State." I explained. Everyone turned to look at me. "It's an ability the Avatar has that can allow him to access the knowledge and power of all his past lives. Until Aang learns to control it, he'll only be able to enter it when he's in extreme danger, or if he's extremely angry."

"How do you know that?" Aang asked me.

"I know a lot of things from old stories." I said dismissively.

Katara turned back to Aang. "Why didn't you tell us you were the Avatar?" she asked.

"Because," Aang said sadly, "I never wanted to be." I felt a pang of sympathy for the airbender. He was a twelve-year-old kid who had the weight of the world on his shoulders. It had to be overwhelming for him.

"But Aang," Katara said "The world's been waiting for the Avatar to return, and finally put an end to this war."

"And how am I going to do that?" Aang asked.

"According to legend," Katara said, "You need to first master water, then earth, then fire, right?"

"That's what the monks told me." Aang confirmed.

"Well, if we go to the North Pole, you can master waterbending." Katara said excitedly.

"We could learn it together!" Aang said brightly before turning to me. "And Alec, we can learn firebending together too, when the time comes."

I nodded at Aang. "I'd be happy to learn it with you." I said.

"And Sokka," Katara turned to her brother, "I'm sure you'll get to knock some firebender heads on the way." She then turned to me. "No offense." she quickly added.

"None taken." I said.

"I'd like that." Sokka said with a smirk. "I'd really like that."

"Then we're in this together." Katara said.

"All right." Aang said, pulling a map from his robe. "Before I learn waterbending, we've got some serious business to attend to." He unraveled the map and started pointing out various locations.

"Here, we'll ride the hopping llamas." he said pointing to one spot, before moving his finger, "Then way over here, we'll surf on the backs of giant koi fish. Then back over here we'll ride the hog monkeys." he looked at our bewildered faces with a smile. "They don't like people riding them, but that's what makes it fun!"

"Before we do that," I interrupted. "I have something very serious I need to tell all of you as soon as we make camp."

Aang looked at me with surprise on his face. "Okay." he said simply.

It was time to tell them the truth. It was time to put my plan into action.

Long AN: The next chapter should come sooner than this one. How will the Gaang react to Alec's origins? How will Alec convince them of the truth? Stay tuned to find out!

Regarding Alec being a firebender, there will be an in-universe explanation for why later. I mean a LOT later, like Northern Water Tribe later. I chose to make Alec a firebender to help him keep up with the rest of the Gaang. I can't write a nonbending fighter very well without stealing from Suki, Mai or Ty Lee, and those three are so iconic that I can't do them dirty like that.

Why did I choose firebending specifically? A few story reasons that I won't discuss, and also process of elimination. I didn't do air because that's Aang's thing, and I didn't want to steal Katara's thunder by making Alec a waterbender. I really couldn't do earth, because Toph is my favorite character and I don't want to take anything away from her. That only left one option.

I plan on Alec being a pretty low-level firebender for a while. All his current knowledge of firebending comes from watching the show, and he doesn't have a martial arts background, so right now he can only replicate two moves from memory: a basic punch, and one other move (bonus points if you can guess the other move). He will need instruction, and I plan on giving some to him. He won't learn as fast as Katara learned waterbending. His progress will take place over the entire series. I really want to avoid creating a Gary Stu, so I need to be super careful.