Book 2: Earth

Chapter 21: The Crossroad Between Worlds, Part 2

Aang watched Azula spin on her toes, her arms spread in opposite directions while she bent at the hip. Katara forced Aang to stay completely still and watch as she took joy in humiliating Azula, flexing her control over both of them.

"This is fun, isn't it?" Katara asked, grinning. Ghashiun looked on with a sickened look on his face. "It's like dancing. Am I the only one having fun here?"

"Didn't anyone teach you not to play with your food before you eat it?" Azula snapped at her. "Quit fooling around and finish us."

Katara dropped one hand to her side and scowled. "Well, then. How about I just have you two kill each other, then?"

Azula swayed over to Aang, her arms limp and flailing with each movement, only to reach for his belt and pull his meteorite sword from its scabbard. She came close enough for him to see the sweat on her brow and the terror in her eyes and that, more than anything, made Aang want to do something. Anything to make that expression go away.

"Aang, I can't stop," she said, her voice high. "Can't you… can't you go Avatar State or something?"

He couldn't look away from her eyes. "I'm sorry," he said. He strained against the invisible force holding him as Katara separated the two by a dozen paces. Reasoning with her would be impossible, just as pointless as fighting her bloodbending. "I can't. Not anymore."

Azula pulled back and gripped the blade with two hands, point aimed at his chest. Tears threatened to fall but she blinked them away. "I'm sorry, too," she said, and at that moment a million things he wanted to say flashed through his mind but they didn't make their way to his lips in time. Azula's words, however, didn't linger in hers, and she whispered a reminder and a promise. "I love you."

He jerked forward and propelled toward her and she toward him but right at the moment when the sword had been about to pierce his chest Katara let out a grunt and Azula diverted the sword just in time and it stabbed the ground. Aang crashed into Azula but they both stayed upright, his arms on hers to brace her and together they looked at Katara, whose limbs twitched as she grimaced at them.

Someone else had used bloodbending on her.

"Wh-what did you do?" Katara asked through grit teeth. She drew in a deep breath and her body loosened so she turned to look at something to her left and Aang realized she had addressed someone else. "Sokka."

"Are all four of you really that dense?" Sokka snapped at them, appearing from the waterfall. "A complete disaster is happening up there with whole sections of the city being destroyed while a bunch of crazy spirits rampage and you're all down here just fighting with each other?"

Katara glared daggers at him while Aang, Azula, and Ghashiun stayed silent. "Why'd you stop me? How did you stop me? You're not even a good bloodbender - you can only do it on a full moon!"

He gave her an exaggerated shrug. "Oh, I don't know, I figured since there's some spirit nonsense happening the Avatar might be our best bet to keep from getting completely wiped out. We already lost, Katara." He flipped his club in his hand as he approached them. "And you said it yourself, full moon's only a few days away. Close enough, right?"

Azula separated from Aang and shot Sokka with her own glare. "So you're just turning against her out of a sense of self-preservation? Like we'd want to work with someone like that. We don't need your help."

"I'm not turning against anybody," he shot back. He looked back at his sister and his features softened. "Katara, have some sense. We'll figure this out together."

Aang looked to Katara, almost in disbelief that this possibility could come to pass. Could they all truly work alongside each other? Sokka's offer of a truce was welcome, despite what Azula had said. Aang's stomach fluttered.

She stepped back from all three of them and held out her hands, cleanly dashing Aang's hopes. "I don't think so." Aang, Sokka, and Azula all went limp, heads hanging as they rose just enough for their toes to brush against the ground. She pushed them toward the waterfall. "Sokka, I'm hurt."

Sokka closed his eye and strained but nothing happened. "Katara, don't do this!"

Her face turned red with anger. "Don't talk to m-mf!"

A glob of wet sand hit her on the back of her head and covered her face, courtesy of Ghashiun, and Azula took the opportunity to grab the sword and run right up to Katara with it before Katara could retaliate. For one horrible moment Aang thought Azula planned to run her through but she smacked Katara through Ghashiun's sand with the hilt of the sword, making her crumple to the ground, unconscious.

Sokka knelt at Katara's side, stunned. "Ghashiun… why'd you do that?" His question didn't come out angry, just surprised and confused.

"I agreed with you," he said, and for the barest moment Aang thought he saw a blush rise to the sandbender's cheeks before he turned away. "Come. We have to go."

Azula tossed the sword back to Aang and he caught it and sheathed it. "Thanks for that," he said. She smirked and he turned to Sokka. "Sokka… Thank you, too."

"I don't want or need your thanks," he responded without even looking up at Aang. "I still invaded the city with her in the first place, remember?"

Azula composed herself remarkably quickly and folded her arms. "And you'll get your comeuppance for that, so don't worry."

Aang approached Katara and clenched his fists, enclosing her hands and feet in stone cuffs, but Sokka was the one who lifted her over his shoulder and headed to the waterfall. Aang frowned; despite everything it felt wrong to shackle Katara. "Appa should still be right above us," he said. "We'll bring her to him and we'll all head into the city to help."

Ghashiun used his earthbending to make handholds on the slippery rock around the waterfall leading back up to the surface. "I will not be joining you," he said. Aang almost said that, as Appa's kidnapper, he wasn't invited on Appa out of principle but held his tongue. "I have no desire to face Wan Shi Tong. I'm going to find my sister again and get out of here."

Azula climbed up after Aang made handholds for her, slower than them all despite her best efforts. "Do you know that spirit, Aang?"

"I do," he answered, and he almost lost his balance on the rock face as he thought of the menacing owl. "Things are even more complicated with him here. Wan Shi Tong kind of hates me."


Yue grabbed Zuko by the shoulders and stared at him in the eyes. "Look at me," she said, her voice firm. "Relax. I know she was your friend but you need to remove all emotion before the Face Stealer gets you, too. Not one expression, not for one second."

He didn't know how he could, especially after seeing Toph's body fall limp. No, she's just Toph, he thought. Not her body. No, not her body…

The others did it. Suki's face remained expressionless behind her makeup. The Dai Li agent, too. But they didn't know Toph. He turned away, unable to look, and grasped at his face as if to pull away any emotion. But how could he, when he wanted to rage? To cry and exact vengeance? Even fear burned strong, especially with his back turned to that monster. He still remembered its horrid face with all those teeth and its eyes, its eyes

"Koh the Face Stealer," said Yue, her voice in a deliberate monotone. "What are you doing in our world?" Zuko wondered if she was trying to distract Koh from his storm of emotions.

That voice like tar slithered behind him and Zuko felt chills up and down his spine. "The Avatar is indeed the bridge between this world and the Spirit World," he said. "It took no effort at all for a spirit of my caliber to pass through the veil, as thin as it is."

"Even so," said Yue, "you do not belong here."

Zuko tried. He tried to push the pain away into the same corner of his mind where the loss of his mother only felt like a dull ache, but that felt like running his tongue over an exposed nerve from a lost tooth and the pain came back all at once and the tears fell. Toph was his friend and he failed her and here he was, unable to even look at the monster, unable to get revenge for what had happened. He wondered if Koh could smell the emotion on him, if he knew that Zuko felt so much and so strongly even though he'd turned away from the spirit. His tears fell but he dared not make a sound or move his face an inch.

"No," said Koh. "I do think I belong right here to punish the Avatar for his hubris." His many feet scuttled on the stone pathway and the sound made Zuko so uncomfortable that he forced himself to look. Koh had changed his face, though the new one was no less horrifying: like a white mask with red lips and grey markings around his eyes. He coiled around Yue, who did not move a muscle. "You see, the Avatar thinks he can change things at a whim. Things that were supposed to happen. A few months ago, a girl was supposed to die, but he saved her."

It took a moment for Zuko to realize who Koh might have been talking about. Ty Lee?

The Dai Li agent stepped forward. "If you are here to punish the Avatar then leave us alone, foul spirit," she said. "He isn't among us."

Koh's face changed in a blink and he screamed at Nagi right in her face with a new visage of a blue demon with sharp teeth. "Do not speak to me, interloper!" Zuko didn't know how but Nagi managed to keep a straight face. In another breath, he turned back to Yue, his face changing to that of a kind woman with black hair. "You've been touched by a different spirit," he said. "So I would not be able to take your face away."

"The stories describe you as a sort of trickster," said Yue. "I have been touched by a spirit, but I will not fall for that. Speak plainly."

Koh continued coiling around Yue, swaying back and forth. "To balance a life gained, another must be taken," he said.

Zuko tried to speak but he didn't think he would have been able to while keeping a straight face. Didn't he already take Toph? What more did he want?

"But I think, with how much the Avatar is meddling, I may need to take away more than just one so the balance is maintained," Koh continued. "Starting with you, the girl who died in another world. And then maybe the interloper, and the boastful earthbender for good measure… That boy has already been spared his destined death, so he will not do." Zuko glanced at Jet, the last one to which Koh referred, but Jet still hadn't moved from unconsciousness.

He stopped coiling and looked directly at Yue, his face changing to that of a serpent-faced demon.

"No!" Suki exclaimed. Koh rounded on her at once, but Zuko couldn't see Suki's face around his enormous bulk. He let out a breath of relief when he heard Suki's voice, clear of any inflection. "Yue died in another world? What do you mean?"

In one smooth movement, Yue unsheathed her blade and cut off several of Koh's legs in a single stroke. The spirit let out a blood-curdling screech that echoed through the night and Zuko couldn't help but close his eyes and cover his ears and screw up his face in pain and he braced himself for the worst, for the claw to come and do the same to him that Koh did to Toph…

But nothing happened. He opened his eyes and only saw Suki looking around just as confused as Zuko. Koh, Yue, Nagi, and Toph had all vanished.

Upon his slab of stone, Jet stirred. He pushed himself to a sitting position, holding his head and wincing with every movement. "Bandit…?"


Climbing the waterfall brought them to a tunnel that ran alongside the canals going through the Upper Ring; Aang followed this path instead of surfacing, judging it to be the safest route for them all to traverse. It brought them to the tunnel Aang had made in the palace grounds, where they emerged and found Appa and the lemurs with a Dai Li agent who showed a copious amount of gratitude to be relieved of bison guard duty. Appa roared at the hapless agent as he departed.

Ghashiun left them there, heading off into the Upper Ring to search for his sister. With no other option for dealing with Katara, Sokka hefted her up onto Appa's saddle, but only after Azula insisted on tying her with rope. Once that had been settled, Aang set off for the Middle Ring with Sokka and Azula at his side. Despite Katara being bound and unconscious and still very much an enemy, Aang felt light enough to soar among the clouds, his energy renewed, ready to take on Wan Shi Tong.

Sokka and Azula sat on opposite sides of the saddle and glared at each other without saying a word, Katara between them.

"Wan Shi Tong is an all-knowing spirit that knows how to counter all the bending styles," Aang warned them. "So be on your guard for anything."

Sokka scoffed. "Okay, so what's your plan for killing him?"

Aang twisted around to glance back at him. "Well… you can't really kill a spirit. Not unless it has a mortal form. Which he doesn't, as far as I know. But I figured we could talk him down and convince him to go back to the Spirit World?"

Azula rolled her eyes and groaned. "Ugh, Aang, really? You don't have a plan?"

"Not this time, no," he said with a frown.

"I say sneak attack to the head," Sokka said. "Make it quick."

"No," said Azula. "Attack from above and force him to fly in a specific direction within range of one of the walls and the earthbender troops on top of them."

"My warriors reported a giant tower that came up from underground," Sokka continued, ignoring Azula. "Let's make him angry by blowing it up!"

"...And while he's trapped between us and the wall we'll take him down in a pincer attack," Azula went on, talking over him.

"So when he's distracted by that we'll nail him with a sludge grenade and take him down to the ground!"

"Guys!" Aang shouted over them both. "Listen, you're both two of the smartest people I know but it would really work a lot better if you figured something out together."

Katara chuckled and all three of them focused on her as she stirred awake. She wiggled to an upright position with her arms tied behind her and leaned against the back of the saddle, a nasty bruise forming on her temple. "Go ahead, Sokka. Bump heads with the firebender savage. But figure it out quick because you don't have time." Her words came out like a taunt. "This'll be fun to watch."

Sokka glared at her, tense in case she tried anything. "If this bison goes down you'll die, too."

"Whatever," she said. "I don't care what happens to you. You're a kin traitor just like Dad!"

Sokka recoiled as if stung by her words. "You have no idea what you're talking about, do you?"

"Guys, now is not the time," Aang said, for the Middle Ring sprawled out below them. The part Aang had flown over before was nothing like this - his heart went out for all the people affected by the devastation. Wan Shi Tong had crossed a line, but no matter how Aang rationalized it he knew he was also partially to blame. If he went home like Pathik wanted, this might not have happened. The Spirit World would have stabilized. Was this better than dooming them to Seiryu's Moon?

The library's central tower reached into the sky, just like Sokka had said, though not yet as high as the wall to the Upper Ring. And just ahead, he spotted a shadow flapping, its outline visible against the sky beginning to lighten beyond it. Appa flew a fair distance alongside the spirit, but close enough for Aang to shout and be heard.

"Wan Shi Tong!" he called. "Stop this senseless killing!"

"Why should I?" he responded, his voice echoing with an ethereal quality. "You know as well as I, Avatar, that humanity has a proclivity toward needless violence and bloodshed. People lie and they cheat and they steal - all things you yourself have done to me, even as I gave you my trust."

Well, that answered one question - as a spirit, this Wan Shi Tong was the same one from his world. "Then face me," Aang said. "And only me. These innocent people don't deserve to die!"

"Innocent? Truly?" he asked. The owl went into a glide and Appa followed his descent. "None among humanity are innocent. None can be trusted with the knowledge I keep. Time and time again, you descend into a state of war where every side commits atrocities, every side seeks an advantage over the other. And when one atrocity is committed, vengeance is sought, only for another to seek vengeance for that act. It is a vicious cycle - one I have seen committed and repeated for thousands of years. Avatar, do you not seek revenge for what happened to your people? For all you have lost?"

Aang closed his eyes. Once, he did wish for that. But no longer. "I could take revenge for what you did to Ba Sing Se. But I'm trying to reason with you."

"What I did?" He flapped again, the beats of his wings sending a gust over them. "You are mistaken. I was forced out of the Spirit World due to the worlds merging together. I was content to stay where no people could find me or my knowledge. But now that I am here… humanity cannot be trusted to live in peace alongside the spirits, with my library so easily accessible to them. I've decided to simply accelerate what humans are doing to themselves."

Azula shouted over the wind. "You have no right to judge humanity! Your library is made up of human knowledge, isn't it? Who are you to be its steward?"

"I am He Who Knows Ten Thousand Things," said Wan Shi Tong. "Which is infinitely more than you, little girl." He went into a dive, talons splayed out and ready to hunt and when he spoke next his voice boomed. "And I say humanity's time on this earth is coming to an end!"

"He's going after those people on that roof!" Sokka yelled, pointing down below. Aang leapt off of Appa's head, staff first, and followed behind Wan Shi Tong who indeed headed for a group of people clustered together in safety on a rooftop. Before the owl could reach them, Aang swung his staff and struck him with a burst of wind that knocked him off course. He unfurled his glider and swooped back up to Appa. The spirit gained in altitude as well, regaining his bearings and flying up to face them.

Then his neck elongated like that of a serpent and he screeched. "My library will never fall into human hands!"


The world was going to change after this day.

Kanna knew it in her bones, knew it in the water and the sky and the earth. Spirits had never acted this way before, to her knowledge, and she wondered what it meant for the Spirit World. She searched through the Lower Ring alongside Piandao for any survivors she could, using her waterbending without a care in the world if it meant saving lives. By this point even most of the Water Tribe warriors directed their attention to the angry spirits.

Piandao called for her attention and a fox spirit appeared in front of her and snarled at her, hackles raised, but before she did anything Xai Bau appeared next to her.

Golden fire hovered in front of Xai Bau's hands, a sensory ability she had seen him use once before to aid in her healing. "Kanna," he said. "Their yin and yang are out of balance. Wan Shi Tong's doing."

"I suspected as much," she said, and raised her arms so that tendrils of water rose on either side of the fox spirit and glowed with golden power. The spirit growled and tried to resist, but she reconstructed its normal flow of chi and restored balance to it. The knowledge spirit shrunk to its normal size and shape, timidly approached Kanna to lick her hand, and departed. "Let us continue. There is much work to be done."


Ghashiun cursed himself for running, for abandoning his sister after all he went through to find her. He knew that, for a time, they fought on different sides if Nagi meant to aid the Avatar, but his loyalty had been to Katara… or so he thought. But seeing her turn on Sokka so easily, to use her bloodbending on her own brother, filled Ghashiun with so much shame that he couldn't imagine ever coming to blows with Nagi. Protecting Sokka was an easy decision.

Thinking back, his crush had started before he had even met Sokka - hearing Katara's stories of the brilliant and funny warrior, inventor, and strategist had captivated him. At first, he had been so disappointed to meet Sokka and learn that he was bitter, traditional, and arrogant, but over time he came to see the young man that Katara had initially described to him.

But that wasn't enough to stay. He had to find Nagi and get out of Ba Sing Se before something even more terrible happened.

He traced his steps back to where he had shaken her off in the Upper Ring and he followed the carefully paved streets until he heard sounds of battle coming from a park. He trailed the sound to its source to find Suki in battle with one of the fox spirits, rolling through the carefully maintained grass to avoid its blow while cutting up at its exposed midsection with her blade. The fox yowled and Suki yelled right back - her voice pained and so unlike her that it startled Ghashiun for a moment. He dug his fingers into the earth and split the ground to call up the dirt and soil buried beneath and whirled it around both combatants to blind them. He ducked into the dirt cloud, hooked his arm in Suki's, and pulled her out and away from the fox spirit.

"Hey! Let go of me!"

"Suki, it's me!"

"I know, I said let go!"

He did just that as soon as he pulled her back to the street and around a corner, hidden from view of the spirit. "I'm trying to help you!" His eyes fell on her tear-streaked makeup and the rips in her uniform. "What happened? Have you seen Nagi?"

Suki's voice broke. "They're gone. Yue and Nagi both. Taken by a spirit."

Ghashiun felt as if the world had been taken out from under him.


Wan Shi Tong launched at them with his beak like a spear, but Aang swung his staff and smacked him away with a burst of air and fire. Azula followed up his attack with a stream of blue fire but the owl dove and came up on Appa's other side and Sokka deflected him with a wall of water. Wan Shi Tong's maneuverability gave him an advantage, Aang quickly discovered, so he jumped back to Appa's head and grabbed the reins to spur the bison into movement.

The owl spirit chased them. Azula and Sokka in tandem kept him at bay but even so, Wan Shi Tong was faster than Appa, and he swooped around them with talons slashing so Aang steered Appa into evasive maneuvers, rising and falling.

"Everyone, hang on!" Aang called. Appa echoed him with a call of his own.

Katara flattened herself against the saddle, about as useful as a worm with her hands still bound in rock cuffs and all the rope. "With what?"

Sokka hurled his boomerang, which missed, and the owl retaliated with a flurry of wings and talons. Azula flashed blue flames and the smell of singed feathers assaulted their noses.

"I remember you, buffoon," said Wan Shi Tong, glaring at Sokka with his beady black eyes. Sokka attacked him with a rain of needles that the owl dodged. "To me, you are nothing but a rat. Your waterbending changes nothing."

"Remember me? We've never even met!"

Sokka's boomerang returned and struck Wan Shi Tong in the back of the head and Sokka grinned in triumph, but the owl opened his mouth and let out a low ringing sound, like hooting. The cry battered against their eardrums and made Aang dizzy and a moment later he realized it did something to Appa too and he started falling from the sky. Aang tried to cover his ears but Sokka shouted something and Aang saw that Katara had fallen from the saddle. Aang didn't hesitate - he leapt off of Appa toward Katara and clutched the rope tied around her midsection. Sokka and Azula gripped him by the ankles and pulled them both back to the saddle.

They had only a moment to collect themselves before all four of them were flattened against the saddle because Appa regained control again. Then Wan Shi Tong himself was in the saddle, his serpentine neck coiling around all four of them, snapping and screeching.

Azula sliced at the owl's neck with flames but it did nothing. "Aang - 'Mister Bridge Between Worlds,' get him out of here! By force, if you please!"

She had meant the saddle, but it gave Aang an idea. Face to face with Wan Shi Tong, he held out his palm as light flashed between them, bright as a beacon in the sky.


Mai groaned. Her ears rang as she pushed herself up but she met resistance and she felt too weak to force through it, so she flattened to the ground again. But the sludge grenade that struck her earlier and hardened to bind her also smelled like rotten fish so she wiggled enough to twist around and grab a knife to cut herself free. Before she stood up straight, the exertion and the dizziness combined with the smell and the pain lancing through her head made her retch and she thought she had a concussion.

She had also been covered in rubble and a layer of dust and debris. Swaying to her feet, she tried to differentiate the painful ringing in her head from the distant sounds of battle, of people sobbing, and stumbled out onto the street. There, she found Lu Mao skewered on a Water Tribe spear and Xiao in a puddle of her own blood and Mai knew without checking their pulses that they were long gone. They'd given their lives to protect their captain as she lay unresponsive.

She wanted to cry. She wanted to rage and scream at the fact that other humans did this, that they were unable to put aside their conflict long enough to face the rampaging spirits. She wanted revenge, to make the Water Tribe pay for what they had done even if she had to do it herself. But she couldn't move; her face stayed impassive as she stared at their bodies, and anyone looking would think she regarded them with her usual stoic demeanor.

Down the street, the wall to the Lower Ring not touching the collapsed neighborhoods shuddered and opened with the sound of grinding stone and evacuees rejoiced at the escape route opened to them. Even as the citizens used the opening to escape, others rushed in and Mai realized them to be the Creeping Crystal coming to the rescue when she saw a man mounted on an enormous bear with the Mad King beside him. She wanted to feel relief at their coming but they were too late.

Mai calmly lowered to her knees, ready to keep vigil over her companions like they did for her.


Aang opened his eyes and found himself in a glittering void.

A road made of starlight stretched out before him and he knew he had been here before, at this intersection of his inner self and all the cosmic energy in the universe. He saw the world far below him, so small and distant, and the darkness beyond that felt comforting rather than unsettling or scary. Ahead loomed his enormous double, his astral Self - everything he was and everything he ever would be. His realization and salvation. His enlightenment and attachment. Behind and below that, he saw another planet and Aang knew it to be his home world, the one ravaged by Sozin's Comet.

He could go to his astral Self. He could go and choose to return to only one world and gain perfect control of the Avatar State. But Aang had already made his decision. Now was not the time. This crossroad only showed him the possibilities available.

As he walked down the road of light he came upon a monk meditating off to the side, in the void beyond the starlight. An Air Nomad. A child he recognized as himself from no more than three years ago, bald and unscarred by war.

Aang stopped. "I'm sorry for taking your destiny," he said. "For what it's worth."

The boy opened his eyes and smiled; a joyous expression free of any blame or malice. "It's okay."

Aang looked at the worlds below them. "I want to give your life back to you."

"I know you do," said the child. "You are me, after all."

"You probably would have done better, though. Better than I did in my world. You never ran away from your duties."

The boy's smile faltered for a moment. "I tried to. You just succeeded in running. But it didn't change anything at all - I still got stuck in that volcano for a hundred years just like you in the iceberg."

They both watched the giant representation of their astral energy for a moment and Aang contemplated what could have been before he turned to look back at his younger self. "You've been here the whole time? I wondered if you were… you know, alive."

The child smiled again. "Of course. I've been with you."

"So what do you want to do, then?" Aang asked, and for a moment he allowed himself the fantasy of letting someone else decide for him. "Do you want to take control of your own destiny again?"

"I don't know if I could," he said. "It's like Guru Pathik said. If you leave, for all we know I might not wake up. But, if you want to take that chance, I'll support you. I'll take over from where you left off. I could do it."

Aang shook his head, and despite the other's enthusiasm and confidence he knew it could never be and that it was fruitless to ask in the first place. "Winter's coming. You haven't mastered fire or earth yet. There's not enough time for you to start your journey this late." And as he looked at the boy with his innocent smile, he thought that his younger self would never be strong enough in other ways, too.

The boy stretched. "Aw, I guess you're right, when you put it that way."

Far away, Aang saw shooting stars and he wasn't sure how time passed here but he remembered why he came in the first place. "How do I get rid of Wan Shi Tong? I'm pretty sure he's past the point of reason."

An old man's voice came from behind him and Aang turned to see Roku. "We'll banish him," he said. "Back to the Spirit World. And we'll do it together."

Kyoshi and Kuruk and Yangchen all materialized. The void filled with all his past lives and Aang smiled in wonder at hundreds of people from all the nations.

"Wan Shi Tong is an ancient spirit," said Yangchen. "One in a lot of pain. He used to love humanity and respect us, maintaining all of our compiled knowledge through the ages and protecting it with pride. He treasured it and many considered him the champion of human accomplishments." Her face fell. "But… things changed."

"Human greed," said Kyoshi. "Over the years, it got to be too much."

Aang looked to Roku. "You made banishing him sound so easy," he said. "How do we do it?"

Another man answered for him. Aang knew without asking that this man was Avatar Wan. The First. "Right now, with all the worlds so close together, the Avatar has become something like a literal bridge between the worlds. Wan Shi Tong and the other spirits are in the physical world because you are. You enabled them to cross over because the Spirit World is reaching to take you back."

Aang frowned. "Thanks for that reminder. So what do we do?"

Wan smiled. "Burn the bridge."

"What?"

"Before the time of the elements, way before even my time when people really started to learn true control over them, people would bend the energy within themselves and all around them," said Wan. "So… we'll bend that energy to burn the bridge between the two worlds."

Aang gestured to his astral Self and the starlit road between his world and this one. "But that's the Avatar's duty!"

"You must forgive us our mistake in sending you here," said Kyoshi. "But it's the only way now, especially since you chose to save both worlds. And besides, it's only one of the Avatar's duties. The other is to maintain balance between the worlds."

"It's only temporary," Roku continued. "Until you go home. By severing our connection to you, we will hold off the encroachment of the Spirit World to give you time to end the war. When you return home, the connection will mend itself. But we can't do it forever, and it may still bleed through the veil. We'll slow the rate at which the worlds are merging."

"Right now, all we can give you is time," said Kuruk. "And… I'm sorry that the other version of me in this world let the war begin. He was reckless. I was reckless."

Aang felt a sense of panic rising in his chest but he tried to force it down. "But what if I need your wisdom? I can't do this alone!"

The boy, Aang's younger self, chimed in and stood at Aang's side. "But you won't be alone. You'll still have me!"

Wan closed his eyes and smiled again. "And you'll still have Raava," he said, but Aang had no idea who that was. He tried running after them but the gap between him and all his past lives widened. The void yawned and they felt further and further away. "Good luck, Aang."


When Aang opened his eyes again, he found himself in the Spirit Library.

He jolted awake and leapt to his feet on a current of wind, looking around at his surroundings. The library felt like a cavern, enormous and empty and quiet. A tomb would have been a more proper description; not even the knowledge seekers scampered around its halls.

"I was right!" Azula's voice echoed far above him - the central tower that he and his friends used to enter the library for the first time all those years ago. Appa's head poked through the minaret window and he squeezed through, grumbling. He drifted through the air like an autumn leaf spiraling downward and Aang moved aside so he could land. "Aang! You're okay! You did it!"

She and Zuko jumped off of Appa's back before he even landed properly and both of them surrounded him in a hug. He closed his eyes and leaned into it, savoring the feeling and the warmth. "Wan Shi Tong is gone?" Aang asked. He looked around. "The library didn't go anywhere…" Would it stay beneath Ba Sing Se forever?

Azula nodded and separated from him. "And you've been gone, too. For most of the morning. But I saw a light leading back here just now and I knew it was you."

He looked past them to see Kanna, Bumi, Xai Bau, and Sokka in the saddle, all of whom dismounted as well. His heart fell when he didn't see Toph and he tried to catch Zuko or Azula's eyes, but they both looked away.

"Guys…" he said, his voice hesitant. "What happened?"

"A lot of things," said Kanna, her eyes soft. "I'll begin with the good news. All the spirits throughout the city are gone. Grand Secretariat Wu mobilized the Dai Li enough to save many of the survivors and round up the invaders. Rescue operations have already commenced. They're still searching and hundreds - if not thousands - are still missing, but we have hope that the damage isn't as bad as it seems."

Aang would carry the weight of all the lives lost with him forever, he knew. Just like all the lives lost in his world.

"And Wu is officially under my protection!" said Bumi, giving them a toothy grin. "And so is your friend, the little waterbender girl. But her protection is more like lock and key and shackles and a big metal cell."

Aang looked to all of their faces and frowned. "What else? What's the bad news?"

Zuko's shoulders went slack. "Mai and Jet are hurt and they're getting medical attention. But… Aang, Toph's gone."

His heart pumped in his ears and he felt like he had gotten punched in the gut. "What?"

"A spirit took her," he said, his voice low and raspy. "He took her face and then he took her away."

Aang was shocked he managed to speak through the lump in his throat. "Her face? Was it Koh the Face Stealer?" His legs shook and he imagined her yelling at him for having a weak stance. But Toph… losing Toph felt impossible. She was unstoppable.

"Get it together, Twinkletoes!"

"You know him?" Sokka asked, scowling. "Zuko said he took Yue, too."

Yue… Was it some sort of punishment? He couldn't keep her alive in this world, either?

No.

"It's not going to be like this," Aang said. "I can't lose them."

Azula frowned. "What are you going to do?" she asked. Her lower lip quivered just a little. "Aang, I'm sorry. I'm sad and hurt and angry too but you can't save everyone."

He remembered, dimly, Avatar Kuruk's story about fighting to save the girl he loved from Koh, and how he had failed and still hunted for her after all these years. Kuruk had chased the Face Stealer to the Spirit World but that option wasn't available to Aang anymore. Aang told his friends as much - about his conversation with his past lives where he made the decision to temporarily sever the connection. He was careful not to reveal anything about multiple worlds with Sokka present.

Xai Bau looked at Aang and Aang had the sneaking suspicion the Sun Warrior could tell what thoughts passed through his mind. "I knew I couldn't feel the Spirit World anymore. But there may be a way," he said. "There are spirit portals in the North and South Poles. Ancient places where our world crosses over with the Spirit World. They've been closed for thousands of years, but…"

Sokka stepped forward with a clenched fist. "We have to try it."

Aang nodded, thankful for the path forward. "We have to go to the south, anyway," he said. "To the Water Emperor so we can end this war." He looked to his friend - to the Water Tribe warrior who became his brother in another world. "Sokka, are you with us?"

He shrugged. "Well, Dad won't be happy, but… Yeah, I guess so. There's so much more at stake, isn't there?" From everything Aang knew of Sokka, he knew that this sort of affirmation was all he needed.

Aang unbuckled the sword sheath from his belt and walked over to Sokka. "This sword is for you," he said. He glanced at Kanna as he said it and saw her eyes twinkling with approval. "I want you to have it."

Sokka looked at him with confusion. "This thing's a work of art. Are you sure?"

"Call it an Avatar's intuition," Aang said. "It just feels right."

And with that, he pressed the meteorite sword into Sokka's hands.


Somewhere far away, Toph Bei Fong felt her consciousness return all at once. She had the sensation of flying and weightlessness before something happened and it threw her off course. Now she felt cold. She floated and the horror set in when she realized she was underwater, drowning; but she had no eyes to feel the sting of salt, no nose to breathe, and no mouth to scream.


Author's Notes: Well, they didn't exactly lose Ba Sing Se this time, but…

I debated for a long time who to include in the two vs two fight in the catacombs. It's probably my second favorite fight in the series so I wanted to do it justice. I knew it was going to include Aang, Azula, and Katara, just like in canon, but I couldn't decide if I wanted to include Zuko or even Toph in the mix two make it three vs one, but even in this universe I don't think Katara's strong enough to make it a believably climactic fight, and throwing Sokka in didn't work because I wanted him to realize the futility of fighting from the moment Wan Shi Tong attacks. I could've made it a full on battle royale and just threw everyone in but I wanted to preserve the 2 vs 2 aspect of it. Pretty late in the game I decided on Ghashiun, which is a pretty big bump up for a previously unimportant character, but he worked best and it has the added benefit of making every combatant from a different nation. Until Sokka jumps in, anyway.

Anyway, I have a lot of thoughts about Sokka's character arc and how it differs from Zuko's but the author's notes aren't the place for them because this is getting long enough. Ah, well.

But there it is, finally! The end of Book 2! Please tell me what you think!