I should have said this earlier, but it's been a while since I watched the show myself. So if there are some details here or in any future chapter that don't align with the original show, please excuse me.
Aang stayed silent for the rest of the journey, and both Katara and Sokka were wise enough not to bother him. They shared knowing glances with each other- they had heard of the dark fate which met the air nomads, and both feared Aang's reaction if it turned out to be true.
Aang could feel a knot in his stomach tightening from his trepidation, and he tried his best to ignore it. So instead, he tried to focus on other things to keep his mind distracted. Naturally, recent events came to mind.
So much had happened in so little time. Aang had gone from enjoying himself, to being rendered horrified by Katara's bombshell, to being banished from the South Pole, to escaping from an angry looking teenager's ship. He didn't really have enough time to process the news Katara had broken to him, so he wasn't yet sure what to feel about it. And for now, he didn't really want to go there. That would come once they reached the temple.
But perhaps the most surprising of all that had happened, something which he hadn't given too much thought to, was that he had actually enjoyed himself for a while. Talking to Katara and Sokka had felt natural, as if he had never transformed into a broody teenager in the first place. It was as if his inner child had reemerged. Aang allowed himself to smile a little at the thought. Perhaps a change in scenery really was what Aang had needed all along.
Unfortunately, the feeling did not last long, for as soon as the mountains concealing the Southern Air Temple came into view, the anxiety and the feeling of dread came back with a vengeance.
Katara had been fidgeting the entire time in the saddle, biting her lip out of worry and apprehension. On the one hand, she knew that Aang probably did not want to be disturbed from his silence, but on the other, she knew that she had to tell him what had happened to the air nomads. Only, she didn't know how to break it to him.
So when Aang's head perked up and he whispered, "We're here", Katara cleared her throat.
"Aang…," she started. "It's been a long time since you've been here. A lot can change in a hundred years."
It was those exact words that Aang dreaded. He feared finding out how much really could have changed in one hundred years…and now he would. What lay behind the mountains would hold the answer. His heart rate accelerated.
"The firebenders could have already been here, Aang." It was Sokka who said that, and it was spoken with an unusual softness that made Katara look at him with a disbelieving stare.
"But these air temples…they can only be accessed by sky bison. They couldn't have gotten here," Aang replied in a small voice.
When they finally cleared the mountains, and the spires of the air temple came into view, the travellers were met with a heavenly sight. Even Sokka let out a gasp, clearly at a loss for words.
But Aang wasn't focusing on the beauty of the structures or the gardens.
When they got closer, Aang could see that the entire place was empty. Nothing moved, nothing breathed. The entire place felt…dead. The feeling of apprehension in his stomach grew into something akin to panic. When they landed, even Appa let out a throaty grumble, clearly not used to the silence here.
"Where is everyone?" Aang asked in a small voice as he slid off Appa. With that question, both Sokka and Katara were snapped out of their trance. They shared a look with each other.
Aang walked over to the edge of the cliff that they had landed on, and gazed down into the empty courtyards. Gradually, his erratic heartbeat calmed and gave way to confusion. Where was everyone?
Katara tentatively walked up to stand beside Aang.
"Aang," her voice came out small and hesitant. "We haven't seen an air nomad for a hundred years." She paused.
"Did you consider that, maybe, the firebenders actually reached the temples?"
Aang looked at her with a shocked expression, horrified by what she was implying, and immediately, Katara felt terrible.
"They wouldn't do something that evil," he said finally.
Katara shut her eyes and swallowed, her hand subconsciously reaching towards her necklace.
"You don't understand, Aang. These people, they took my mother away from me."
Aang let out a small gasp and stayed silent for a while, speechless.
"I'm so sorry Katara," his voice came out, hushed. For a moment, they stayed just like that, silent. But Sokka interrupted.
"I'm hungry. And tired."
Katara gave him an annoyed look, and Aang looked at the sky to see that it was indeed getting late: the sun had almost set. They had travelled for about four hours non-stop since their escape from the Fire Nation ship. They needed rest.
Aang looked back down at the temple. If the Fire Nation had somehow managed to reach the temples…Aang tried to figure out what would have happened.
"Of course!" he said suddenly.
Sokka's head perked up. "This place has meat?" he asked excitedly.
"What? No."
Sokka's face fell.
"My people were always pacifists and avoided violence at all costs. They must have gone into hiding once they heard about the war," he said. His face lit up slightly at his own explanation, clearly relieved that his people may still be out there somewhere.
He turned around to face Katara and Sokka.
"We'll sleep here tonight. Tomorrow, I'll show you guys around the air temple."
Aang was already up by the time Katara and Sokka woke up. Katara suspected that he barely even slept the night before. After they managed to wake Sokka up (which proved to be quite a difficult task), they had a quick breakfast and began their tour.
"This was where we used to play airball," Aang said wistfully when they approached the airball courts.
A sigh escaped from Aang's lips. He had often sat on the roof of his dorm building, gazing longingly at the kids playing airball- a place he could no longer be accepted. That same familiar feeling came creeping back to him.
For a moment, he just stood there reminiscing the times he used to play with his friends, back when everything was normal.
Behind him, Katara nudged Sokka. Suppressing a groan, and wondering why his sister couldn't comfort him herself, Sokka walked up to Aang.
"So how do you play this game?"
At first, Aang just blinked at him. Sokka made an effort to keep a serious face for as long as he could.
Mercifully though, a small grin started to spread across Aang's cheeks, and soon enough, Sokka found himself at the receiving end of a swift, humiliating defeat. In one move, Aang sent the ball hurtling toward him in a brown blur, knocking him off his pillar and through the goal along with the ball. He landed with an "umph" at Katara's feet.
Back at the airball court, Aang was overcome with a sudden urge to whoop with triumph.
Luckily for him, neither Sokka nor Katara noticed. He looked just in time to see Katara bending a pile of snow, leaving Sokka with a healthy coating of white.
Figuring that the game was over, Aang airbent himself down from the court to walk towards them, overcome with a warm, fuzzy feeling. The childish urge to cheer had come out of nowhere, yet it didn't feel unnatural. He had always believed that he had lost his previous self, but he was proved wrong back when he went penguin sledding, and just now while he was playing airball.
Not wanting his cheerfulness to go away, he strode up to his companions with a huge grin plastered on his face.
"You reckon you'll last longer the next round, Sokka?"
Sokka opened his mouth, but before he could speak, Katara interrupted.
"I think he's done for the day," she spoke quickly.
Sokka gave her a brief, questioning look, before deciding to brush the cold snow off his clothes. Sokka did indeed look slightly paler, and Aang figured it was thanks to Katara's dousing with the icy cold sludge.
"Oh. Well then let's keep going then. There's something I want to show you."
"I'd like you guys to meet Gyatso. He was my mentor, my trainer, my confidante. We were very close. I almost consider him as a father."
Katara and Sokka looked at the slightly weathered statue of the old airbender monk. Katara felt a pang of sorrow when she realised that he must have passed away by now.
Fortunately, it seemed that Aang didn't consider this, as he was already speaking.
"I was never allowed in here until after I was revealed as the Avatar. All of my friends of the same age were also never allowed in here. But I don't think it would hurt for you guys to come inside and see. I'm sure you'll be impressed."
Katara breathed in awe as she gazed upon the hundreds of statues all spiralling up towards the roof. There were so many of them that she couldn't see any discernible starting point.
"These statues are the statues of all of my past lives. They go all the way up to the first Avatar, Avatar Wan," Aang spoke as he recalled what he had been taught by Gyatso.
Katara seemed interested in one particular statue.
"Why does it stop at this Avatar?"
Aang looked at the tall statue. "This is Avatar Roku. He was the Avatar before me."
No sooner than Katara continued to walk around and look at each statue in complete awe did Sokka begin complaining.
"Yeah yeah, that's cool and all, but where's the nearest place we can find food? I'm starving."
Aang looked at him, bemused, and let out a chuckle. "Wow you must have quite an appetite. We just had breakfast less than an hour ago."
"Tell me about it," Katara said, momentarily distracted from her exploration.
Sokka groaned again as both Aang and Katara continued marvelling at the statues. Aang showed off his extensive Avatar history knowledge to Katara, who kept asking him for details about each Avatar.
Sokka was still loitering near the entrance corridor when a shadow of a figure approaching them fell upon him. After a comical moment of needless fear, the imposter revealed itself to be a flying lemur.
Upon seeing the first sign of life in the abandoned temple, Aang was understandably overcome with overwhelming relief. Before he could approach the cute, furry animal though, Sokka had already started to run towards it with drool dribbling from his mouth and his weapon drawn.
Startled, the lemur scurried away.
Not wanting to lose sight of what might be the only living animal left on the temple, Aang joined in on the chase.
"What was that for Sokka? You scared it away!" Aang tried to sound angry, but he soon found himself laughing as he raced alongside Sokka.
Seeing that Sokka didn't look like he was going to give up on the chase, Aang decided to allow himself to have a bit of fun by whizzing past him with the help of his airbending, and sending a ball of air towards Sokka that knocked him off his feet. That didn't stop Sokka from giving up. Though being a considerable distance behind Aang and the lemur now, Sokka continued to run in their direction.
As Aang zipped through corridors on his air scooter, he couldn't help but remember back when he used to race his friends on the air scooter, and the times when they used to run away from cranky airbender monks thanks to their superior agility and speed.
The lemur continued to give Aang a difficult chase, leading him outside the statue room and around several paths and walkways until eventually, it disappeared into a cave.
Aang walked into the cave, knowing that the lemur would have been trapped in there and the chase was finally over. But the first thing he noticed as he entered the mouth of the cave was the foul stench of rot and decay that came from it. It wasn't pungent enough to cause him to retch, but enough to make him pinch his nose and scrunch his face for a few seconds. It was odd, he remembered that the cave smelt like moss. The smell grew slightly stronger as he walked through the tunnel.
When the first firebender corpse came into view as he rounded a corner that led to an opening, he didn't understand why a slightly tattered, dull red garment was left discarded on the floor. But as he approached closer and glimpsed the yellowed bones of a skeleton poking out from underneath, he almost heaved. He ripped his eyes from the body, only to find a dozen more lying haphazardly around the inner wall of the cave.
He stumbled and covered his mouth with his hand to keep himself from gagging. But when he found the body at the centre, with the orange robes and familiar amulet hanging around the collarbone and vertebrae, and recognised the corpse as Gyatso, he fell to his knees.
His vision went blurry and his mind blank. He didn't notice Sokka running into the cave. He could barely even feel Sokka's hand, which was now lightly resting on his shoulder.
And then the pain came crashing down at once, like floodgates being opened. The reality of the situation hit him like a sucker punch to the face. Gyatso was dead. He felt slightly woozy, almost as if he was fainting.
Behind him, Sokka abruptly let go of Aang's shoulder with a gasp as soon as he saw a white light flickering from his tattoos. The white light flickered dangerously, and Aang seemed to be battling it from overtaking him. Winds picked up around Aang, and suddenly, Sokka no longer felt safe standing right there.
As the winds picked up their speed and Aang entered the Avatar state, Sokka ran to safety behind a large rock and shouted through the howling winds for Aang to calm down.
A piece of parchment broke loose from inside Gyatso's robe due to the winds, but this went unnoticed in the midst of the chaos.
Shortly, Katara appeared by Sokka's side. She, unlike Sokka, did not hesitate to step closer to Aang to make sure he could hear her.
"Sokka and I, we're your family now."
That was the only thing that Sokka could hear her saying over the raging winds. More importantly, Aang heard it, and the winds and the Avatar glow started to die down as he returned to the ground.
Before he could collapse onto the floor, Katara caught him and held him close.
When the white glow from his eyes faded completely, Aang groaned and found himself looking into Katara's eyes.
"If the firebenders got here, then they would've been able to get to the other air temples too. Does this mean…does this mean that I'm the last airbender?" He said the last few words in a very quiet and strangled voice, barely below a whisper.
Katara only shut her eyes to keep tears from falling and pulled him closer, hugging him tighter.
But even though she was trying to be comforting, Aang found her confirmation of his question too overwhelming. His chest constricted and breathing became hard. Suddenly, there wasn't enough space.
He tried to get up and almost fell over. Sokka tried to help him up and Katara said something he couldn't quite catch. He needed some air.
Somehow, he managed to get up, and despite Katara's protests, he stumbled out of the cave. After wandering senselessly in a random direction for a few minutes, he found himself standing next to Appa.
It seemed befitting that he would come here. He often did whenever he felt particularly overwhelmed or lonely.
And then he let it all out. All of the pent-up fear that he had been trying to ignore until now. All of the pain that came with the realisation of being the last of his race. All of the loneliness that came with the death of his most beloved.
He didn't know how long he stayed there crying. But when there were no more tears left, he heard a soft chittering sound. He lifted his head from Appa's fur, which was now damp from where he had been crying, to find the lemur he had been chasing.
It held a yellowed and slightly torn paper in its mouth, and slowly walked up to Aang and dropped it in front of him, as if it were a peace offering. Aang picked it up, and gasped when he found out that it was a letter Gyatso had written for him.
My dearest Aang,
I hope that by the time this letter reaches you that you are safe and progressing well with your waterbending training.
First of all, I just wanted to apologise. I am very sorry Aang. Sending you away so suddenly was my idea, but please, I ask that you do not hate me for it.
When word reached that a Fire Nation fleet was sailing towards our temple, I knew that they were after the Avatar. And so we agreed that sending you away would be the best option for your safety.
You might be angry with us because we decided to do this, but I just want you to know that we all love you. Even the elders. Even your old friends love you. And when you love someone, you do what you can to protect them.
I knew that if you found out about the fleet, you would not have left, so I did not tell you. I just hope that you can forgive me for this.
I am writing this as the fleet approaches. I do not know what will happen once they come, but whatever happens, I do not want you to ever feel scared or alone. And just to make it clear, I do not want you to come back here once this letter reaches you. But I know you will, and I cannot do anything to stop that from happening.
But for as long as you live, wherever your Avatar journey takes you, please, remember all that I have taught you Aang. Remember who you are. You are the Avatar, but you are also Aang. Never forget that. Please remember all of this, it is the only thing I wish for you to do.
And know that whatever happens, our love will always be with you. No matter what.
Your friend,
Gyatso.
Aang read over the letter a couple of times, his expression growing more and more shocked each time.
They knew.
He had overlooked their nervous glances and the sudden declaration of their decision to send him away. But they had known what was coming the whole time. That was the great calamity that they had foreseen all those years ago.
He felt more hurt than angry at the fact that they tried to keep him from the truth.
Aang reread the letter once more, his mouth drying when he reached near the end.
"...remember all that I have taught you Aang. Remember who you are. You are the Avatar, but you are also Aang. Never forget that. Please remember all of this, it is the only thing I wish for you to do."
His dying wish, Aang thought, and a silent tear streamed down his face.
He heard a soft purr from beneath him, and suddenly the lemur jumped onto Aang and coiled around his shoulder, snuggling into his arms.
Appa also came closer to Aang and nuzzled him with his giant nose, letting out a soft grunt as he did so.
Aang sighed as he hugged both animals closer.
"We're all that's left of this place. We need to look out for each other."
Both animals let out soft, reassuring purrs and snuggled closer to Aang, and for a moment, Aang didn't feel very lonely. He felt safe. He felt loved.
Aang remembered the last words in Gyatso's letter.
"And know that whatever happens, our love will always be with you. No matter what."
And in spite of everything, Aang smiled.
A/N: Let me know what you guys think!