"Wow… wow!" Katara exclaimed, staring at the tall mountains in amazement. "This is incredible, Aang!"
"I told you you'd like it out here," Aang said proudly, beaming as he shook the reins on Appa's horns, compelling the bison to fly faster.
The air was fresh and pure, so much warmer than what Katara was used to. She had loosened her parka when they were still flying over the ocean, which had surprised Aang. The continuous cold weather in the Pole must have made Katara more sensitive to temperature changes than he was.
They had taken off on a short trip at Aang's insistence. Hakoda hadn't been all that pleased by the idea, but after being pestered by the two benders for long enough, he had finally complied and allowed them to travel, but not without telling them for the millionth time not to fly too far away from home. Aang promise to keep both himself and Katara safe, and thus he had taken her with him on a journey that would lead him home for the first time in over a hundred years.
The perspective wasn't too thrilling, not when Aang had already heard about the fate that had befallen the Air Nomads… but he thought he needed to see the Temple for himself. He had to make sure everything was truly as hopeless as he had been told it was.
And it didn't hurt either that, as soon as he asked Katara if she would like to see the Southern Air Temple, she had given him the brightest smile she had ever showed him. The girl had been more than happy to leave the South Pole, if only briefly. She had been dreaming, since a long time ago, of traveling through the world with Aang, hoping to help him find people who would teach him to bend the remaining elements he had to master, but it seemed it wasn't an option in a world at constant war. And even though this wasn't quite a chance to help Aang uphold his duties as the Avatar, it was a start. If they returned home safe and soundly, and her father realized that they were perfectly capable of taking care of themselves, he might consent to let them travel again, perhaps to seek an earthbending teacher for Aang…
"I'd never seen anything like this before," said Katara, staring down at the mountains from Appa's saddle. "Well, of course I hadn't, I mean, you know I'd never left the South Pole before…"
Aang chuckled at her nervous rambling. Katara gazed down at the streams trickling down the mountains, at the large trees, at the birds that flew from one branch to the next, at the critters down below, and all along, her eyes gleamed with excitement. There were so many wonders beyond the South Pole…
"And you still have to see the best part of it all!" said Aang, smirking as he steered Appa through a large mountain…
… And before them appeared the tallest buildings Katara had ever seen. They were pristine and beautiful, and they seemed to be entwined with the very mountains…
And yet they were solitary. They were decaying, and it was obvious for Katara that those wonders of architecture had seen better days in the past. She looked at Aang, who had been rather enthusiastic during the journey so far, and discovered his face was clouded with sadness now. The magnificence of the Southern Air Temple he had once known was gone… though not because of the state of the buildings, which had been preserved all-too well considering the Fire Nation had attacked the Air Nomads ruthlessly a hundred years ago. The true spirit of the Temple was not here anymore: the airbenders were gone.
"Aang…" Katara said, reaching out towards him and wondering if perhaps she should climb down the saddle to embrace him at Appa's neck… yet it might not be a wise move. She had come to know Aang quite well over time, but she wasn't sure of how he would respond to close physical contact of any kind. The idea still made her rather nervous.
"I'm… don't worry, Katara," Aang said, giving her a weak smile. "I already knew… you guys had already warned me about this. It's just… I guess I wished you had been wrong. I wished, even when I knew it was impossible, that maybe they would still be here…"
"I'm sorry, Aang," said Katara, swallowing hard. Maybe journeying into the Southern Air Temple hadn't been such a good idea after all…
"Sorry why?" Aang asked, smiling again as he steered Appa towards a bison landing site. "I was the one who came up with the idea of coming here, wasn't I?"
"True, I guess, but… are you okay with this?" Katara asked. "We can go back if it's…"
"I think I need to see things for myself," Aang said. "And… I don't know, maybe I ought to check if my room's still in place. I haven't cleaned it in over a hundred years, how about that?"
Katara could only smile weakly at Aang's silly joke as Appa touched the ground gently. The bison roared upon landing, and Aang patted his head in appreciation for his hard work.
"Good job getting us here, buddy," he told the bison. "It was quite a long trip… get some rest now, alright?"
Katara climbed off the saddle swiftly and looked around herself in awe. Even if there was an undeniable sadness to the Temple, it was a beautiful place, in such perfect harmony with its natural surroundings… it wasn't hard to understand why Aang was such a spiritual man, or why he loved nature so much to the point of being a vegetarian. She could just close her eyes and imagine what this place had been like during its golden days…
"Liking it so far?" Aang asked, approaching Katara with a smile on his face.
"It's beautiful," Katara replied. "It feels so… peaceful."
"I assure you it wouldn't be so peaceful if everyone was still around," said Aang, his grin becoming a little sadder.
"What do you mean?" said Katara, frowning. "Were airbenders conflictive or something? Because I heard…"
"Ah, not really," said Aang, smiling and scratching the back of his head. "I just think they'd be making a ruckus upon watching us arrive. And my masters would be pretty shocked if they saw me with hair, they'd likely demand I shave it off right away."
"Woah, that's harsh. Would they really do that?" asked Katara, smiling now.
"Yeah… I can picture it," said Aang, chuckling. "They were quite strict, but I still got my way with them more often than not. It was thanks to Monk Gyatso, mostly. He was my favorite master, and the one who taught me most of what I needed to know."
"Really? Was he the one who taught you the most advanced airbending techniques?" Katara asked.
"Oh, not at all," said Aang, laughing cheerfully. "The one who taught me how to have fun!"
Katara stared at him, puzzled. Was he serious?
"Come, I'll show you!" Aang said, reaching out to grab her wrist.
Katara was surprised when he grabbed her gently, pulling her through the long walkway that coursed through the buildings. Katara found herself smiling at Aang's sudden child-like behavior. She hadn't expected him to change his demeanor so quickly, but she figured it was his way of coping with the circumstances. Remembering old days might be painful, but the endearing memories were also a matter of joy, not solely of sadness.
After leading Katara into one of the tallest buildings, Aang brought her to an open terrace with what looked like a firewood oven to Katara. The view from where they stood now was amazing, yet it didn't seem that was what Aang had wanted to show her.
"See, this is where Gyatso would bake his fruit pies," said Aang, smiling at the oven.
"Oh? Were they good?" Katara asked, surprised. She hadn't expected the fun Aang spoke of would be something as innocent as cooking.
"Uh, they weren't that great," said Aang, scratching the back of his head again before turning towards Katara with a small smirk. "I never got to eat them much anyways, because he baked them so that we could toss them at the other monks!"
Katara gaped at him in shock, and Aang could do nothing but laugh. She definitely hadn't seen that one coming…
"Really? He would bake just for the sake of…?" Katara muttered. "You Air Nomads are strange. The penguin sledding, the fruit pies…"
"Strange?" Aang asked, raising an eyebrow. "Well, you think so, but that's because you're too serious, Katara. You have to learn to lighten up!"
"What…? I'm not too serious!" Katara said, slightly indignant. Aang jumped back as she proved his point by taking his teasing to the heart. The frown on her face was enough to daunt him a little… maybe he should word his thoughts differently, to avoid hurting her feelings.
"W-well, what I mean is… you've never had the chance to fling fruit pies at old men, so you wouldn't know what it feels like!"
"It really sounds crazy to waste valuable food on something like…"
"Oh, boy," said Aang, shaking his head. "So you never did anything crazy or silly back in the Southern Water Tribe? Something like… I don't know, using some of those pelts you guys have to make puppets for a puppet show?"
"A… a puppet show?" Katara repeated, dumbstruck.
"My… you've got to learn to have fun, Katara, really," said Aang, shaking his head.
"I'm able to have plenty of fun! I'm… I'm not dull!" Katara declared, flushing slightly.
"You're not," said Aang, chuckling. "But you could use being less uptight about things. I get that… that you've been through some tough things, but…"
"But so have you" said Katara, frowning before giving him a weak smile. "And yet you're able to have fun. So… you think I should do the same."
"Yeah, more or less" said Aang, smiling back.
"Well, there's a chance I just have a different way of having fun than what you're used to…" said Katara, looking up in feigned innocence before giving Aang a devious wink. The Avatar blinked a few times and blushed at the look on her face, and she laughed at him before leaving the room.
Was dazzling him her way of having fun? Because if it was, he could get used to it.
The next station Aang led her to, once he was out of his daze, startled Katara upon seeing it. Tall wooden posts stood before her in the middle of a yard, forming a rectangle. Two posts with squares atop them stood at opposite ends of the field. Katara frowned and Aang smiled at her.
"This is where we used to play airball. That was so much fun… I think we could try to play it, but I don't think it'll work so well with waterbending," said Aang. "Still want to try it?"
"It sounds a little crazy," said Katara, smiling uncomfortably. "But if you think it might work…"
"Huh, are you really willing to try it?" Aang asked, amused. "Sure it's not too much fun for Katara?"
"Oh, you'll see just how much fun I can have…" said Katara, threateningly, yet smiling as she did so. Aang chuckled and jumped off towards the one end of the post field, while Katara climbed with some difficulty onto the other one.
Aang had been right to expect airball wouldn't work so well with water as it did with air, but not in the way he had expected. To his chagrin, Katara had it rather easy to deflect the wooden ball using the water from the pouch she carried around her waist, and before Aang knew it, the score was so one-sided he could hardly keep up.
"So… twenty-five on three, is it?" Katara said, beaming.
"Twenty-five? Wasn't it twenty-fo-…? Oh, never mind, you're wrecking me anyways," said Aang, sighing in defeat. "You're better at this than you should be, Katara!"
"Beginner's luck, maybe?" said Katara, smirking as they both climbed off their posts.
"Or maybe you're more talented at airball than I am," said Aang, smiling as he walked towards her.
"I wouldn't say so," said Katara, chuckling. "See, I was playing waterball, you were playing airball."
"That's true as well," Aang admitted, grinning. "Ah, everyone would be shocked at watching me lose like this…"
"Really?" asked Katara, raising an eyebrow. "Why would it be so surprising?"
"Well… I was a pretty good airbender, even if it's not too humble of me to say so," said Aang, smiling shyly. "I even developed the technique of the air scooter, you know? I taught it to the other kids, but they had a hard time keeping up with me. Every time we held air scooter competitions I'd beat them all without fail… At least, that's how it was until they found out I was the Avatar. When I was revealed as the Avatar, they said I had an advantage over them so they wouldn't race or play with me anymore."
"Wha-…? Really?" Katara asked, shocked. "But that's… that's stupid!"
"You think so?" Aang asked, raising his eyebrows.
"Well, you may be the Avatar and you may be able to bend all four elements, but that doesn't mean you'd have an advantage if you're bending only one!" said Katara, frowning.
"Well… to be fair, I was already an airbending master by then," said Aang, smiling uncomfortably. "So I did have an advantage…"
"But it was because you were a master, not because you were the Avatar… I just pummeled the Avatar in airball and I can only bend water!" said Katara, folding her arms across her chest as Aang laughed beside her. "They were just making excuses so that you wouldn't make them look bad, that's all there was to it."
"Surely," said Aang, smiling at her. "So it's not as though I were a talented bender, you say? Even when I mastered airbending at age twelve…?"
"You had already told me that, so there's no point in hoping to impress me with it now," said Katara, at which Aang sighed.
"Drat, I forgot about that. Then what does it take to impress you, Katara?" Aang asked, playfully.
"Oh, I wonder…" she replied, smiling at him. "Say, you talked about not cleaning your room for a hundred years, didn't you?"
"Ah, yeah," said Aang, grimacing now. "Having a look at that might not be such a good idea, but I might as well try…"
"Putting it off won't make it any easier," said Katara, smiling.
As Aang led the way to his room, in the Temple's main building, they walked by a large door. Katara frowned as she looked at it, realizing there was quite a strange mechanism on it…
"What's that?" she asked Aang, who stopped and looked at the door, swallowing as he did.
"That's… the sanctuary. I was allowed inside a few days after they told me I was the Avatar. It's… it's just full of old statues, nothing other than that."
"Really? If that's the case… why does it sound like it bothers you?" Katara asked, raising an eyebrow as she stopped walking as well.
"It's just… well, the statues are of all the previous Avatars before me," said Aang, frowning. "The monks hoped that perhaps I would find enlightenment by entering the sanctuary and meditating in it, that I might be able to speak to my past lives… but it didn't happen."
"And why did they want you to do that?" asked Katara. "Can that even be done, for starters? Talking to your past lives?"
"I don't know, they said so," said Aang, shrugging. "Gyatso knew the Avatar before me and he said he had been able to speak to his past lives, so I guess it must be."
"Who was the one that came before you?" Katara asked. She had grown so used to the idea of Aang being the Avatar that it was hard to picture anyone else in the role…
"His name was Avatar Roku… and he was from the Fire Nation," said Aang, at which Katara stiffened.
"W-well, but…" she muttered, her fists clenched. "That was a long time ago. Your past life wasn't like the Fire Nation people nowadays, I'm sure."
"I hope," said Aang, smiling weakly.
"Why couldn't you connect with them, though?" Katara asked.
"Well… in a way, it wasn't as though I was in the right mindset to do it," said Aang, shrugging. "They were going to see me off to the Water Tribes on the next day, so I was anxious and I couldn't meditate properly."
"Then… do you think you could connect with them now? If you try now, would you be able to…?"
"Who knows?" said Aang, shrugging again. "Maybe. But… would that be any use? Won't they just scold me for being irresponsible during the past hundred years?"
"I'm pretty sure they'll know you didn't plan on getting stuck in that iceberg for so long," said Katara, smiling encouragingly. "Go on, give it a go. Who knows if it might come in handy?"
Aang sighed and turned towards the door. He took a deep breath and stretched his arms out towards the mechanism, blowing a powerful stream of air that made the doors swing inwards, allowing them inside a very dark room.
"According to Gyatso, I'd be able to meet the guide for my journey here…" said Aang, entering the sanctuary, followed closely by Katara. "And that guide is supposed to be Roku, I guess. But… but Gyatso also said he'd reveal himself to me when I was ready. Will it be any use for me to force this if I'm not ready yet?"
"Maybe not…" said Katara, gazing around herself in amazement as she looked at the rows of statues before them.
There had to be thousands of them… How many Avatars had this world seen? It was shocking to think Aang carried such an important legacy on his shoulders. The title of Avatar was so much more than she had thought it would be… back in the day she had just wanted to see the Avatar return, as though he were a hero from legends. Now that she knew Aang personally, though, she had almost forgotten all about her previous notion. He was a good friend to her now, the best she had ever had… and yet he still bore the weight on his shoulders of having to become the hero she had believed in. The hero the world had always believed in.
"This is him," said Aang, stopping before the statue of a man with long hair and beard, flowing robes and a sharp hairpiece crowning his head. "Avatar Roku."
"He's… tall," said Katara, smiling.
"All these statues are taller than us, but I think it's because they were made to look bigger than the Avatars really were," said Aang, grinning back. "So… see? He's Fire Nation, but he's not a bad guy. Else it would mean I'm a bad guy too, you know?"
"It's your past life, Aang, he's not really you," said Katara, frowning. "And besides, I already said I doubt he was as bad as the Fire Nation people nowadays."
"Well… I suppose unless proven otherwise, you're allowed to believe that," said Aang, albeit her judgment against the Fire Nation still seemed rather harsh to him. He was certain there still had to be good people amongst them, even if Katara refused to believe it…
He gazed up at Roku's eyes, wondering if this man would really serve as his guide. How could a statue help him, if it could help at all? Did he have the answers Aang needed? Would he tell him how to end the war? How to restore balance in the world?
Aang lowered his head and sighed. How could a statue hold any answers for the questions that plagued him?
"Well? Are you going to try meditating?" Katara asked Aang.
"I… I don't know, Katara," said Aang. "I've always been told I'm good at meditating and at dealing with the spiritual side of bending, but… for some reason, I don't think this will work out. I guess he might have the answers we're hoping to find, maybe he'll help us restore balance in the world, but…"
"But what?" Katara asked, frowning. "What is it, Aang?"
"I just don't know," Aang muttered. "Can I do it? Am I really capable of… of doing whatever it takes? Because I don't think I'll be able to, Katara. The fate of the world is in my hands, but I don't know if I can fight a war. All my life I was taught to treasure life, to cherish it in its every expression, and now I'll have to sacrifice my spiritual needs in order to keep balance in the world by fighting a war? What if I sacrifice them to no avail? What if… what if everything I do proves to be useless in the long run?"
"Aang… stop," said Katara, looking at him sternly. "Nothing you'll do will be useless, not if you truly mean to change the world, to make it what it used to be. You're… you're the Avatar, Aang! If anyone can restore the balance in the world, it's you!"
"But that's… that's where you're wrong, Katara" said Aang, frowning "I am the Avatar… but in the end, the Avatar is just one person in one generation. Look around us… all these statues are of different Avatars, and all of them together in the same place make quite the spectacle to behold, but every single one of them had to pull off the job of keeping balance all by themselves, and…"
"Not true," said Katara. "Not if they could reach out to their past lives in order to gain the knowledge they needed to keep balance. And not if they had friends… and you have friends, Aang. At least, you have one in me."
"And I appreciate that, Katara, but… the fact that I can bend four elements, just as you said before, doesn't make me a better person than anyone else," said Aang. "It doesn't mean that I simply will be able to change the world just by willing it. If it were that easy, I would have done it by now."
"Aang…" said Katara, reaching out to pat his shoulder.
But before she could do so, a long shadow appeared on the floor behind them, startling them. Aang and Katara jumped back, looking at it with distrust and wariness, wondering what were the chances for someone to show up in the deserted Air Temple exactly when they did…
… And it happened to be no more than a lemur, who looked at them with curious eyes, his ears twitching as he regarded the strangers.
"It's… it's a lemur!" Aang squealed happily, and Katara stared at him in surprise.
"Aang?"
"Lemur!" Aang shouted, running off after the creature.
"Aang!" Katara exclaimed, glaring at him as Aang pursued the small animal through the Temple. "Oh, for crying out loud… one second you're talking about the heavy weight of being the Avatar, having to save the world, and on the next you're off chasing a lemur?!"
Nonetheless, the waterbender found herself running out of the sanctuary as well if she wanted to find the rampaging Avatar, who had thought of the great idea of pursuing the lemur by riding a ball of spinning air.
"So… is that the air scooter?" Katara asked, smiling despite herself as she continued to follow him.
"Where are you going?! I'm not going to hurt you, I just want to be friends!" Aang exclaimed, as the creature ran off into the ruins of an old house.
Aang had to climb off the scooter before entering the lemur's hideout, since the house seemed rather ravaged, for reasons he didn't stop to think about…
Yet he was forced to face those reasons upon finding corpses clad in red-and-black outfits once he had entered the house.
Aang's eyes widened as he looked at the dead bodies around him, horrified. So far, he had barely found any evidence of the war, to confirm that the Fire Nation had indeed attacked the Air Nomads, but as he looked at the skeletons of the many soldiers who had perished in battle, his hopes were crushed. And it wasn't just Fire Nation soldiers: several bodies wore orange-and-yellow clothes, stained with blood that had dried over a hundred years.
And the sight that horrified him most was that which stood the farthest from where he was.
Aang walked towards the last skeleton, as though animated by an unknown force. He dropped on his knees before the corpse, taking in the worn out clothing, but mostly, the wooden necklace around his neck.
"G-Gyatso…?" he muttered, as tears began to slip from his eyes. "Gyatso…"
The man who had taught him almost everything he knew, the best friend he had known through his childhood days… he had always been able to put a smile on his face when Aang had been sad or bored. Nobody had supported him as thoroughly or cared so much for Aang's wellbeing as Gyatso had. Surely he had died here, hoping that, at the very least, Aang would be able to escape the massacre…
Sobs began shaking Aang's shoulders before he could hold them back. His hands went to his hair, and he pulled at it as he curled up in his frame, disappointed with himself. If only he had left for the Temple earlier… if he had never even left the Temple, in the first place, perhaps he could have saved Gyatso. Perhaps he could have saved everyone! But he had failed… he had failed. He had spent the past hundred years frozen cold, and now he couldn't regain what he had lost. There was nobody to help him find the answers he needed. He had allowed the world to fall out of balance, and he was supposed to restore it now… but how was he supposed to save the world when he had been unable to save those he loved?
"Aang? Aang…" Katara muttered, as she crawled into the tattered house. She couldn't see him at first, but the sounds she heard were undoubtedly those of someone in tears.
When she saw what was within, she understood why Aang was crying. There had to be twenty dead Fire Nation soldiers in here, if not more… and, amongst them, several Air Nomads' corpses.
Katara approached Aang carefully, knowing he was prone to dangerous reactions when he was too emotional, but he didn't seem to mind hearing her footsteps behind him. His shoulders still shook as he sobbed desperately.
"Aang…" said Katara, her hand touching his shoulder.
"I… I couldn't save them, Katara, I… I wasn't strong enough," Aang muttered, gritting his teeth and wishing his voice wouldn't fail him as he tried to speak.
"Aang, it's not your fault," Katara said, pulling him towards her and away from Gyatso's body.
She embraced him; this time there was no room for doubts regarding if she should hug him or leave him be. Her gesture would have taken him by surprise if only his grief had been any less intense. Aang clutched at her clothes now, his forehead on her shoulder as he wept uncontrollably.
"None of this is your fault. Don't blame yourself for it," said Katara, hugging him tightly. "This war, these… these firebenders, they're the ones that should be held responsible for it, not you. You're right, Aang… you're just one man. You were only a kid when you were last here, and you were trying to return to save them…"
"B-but I failed… I failed them, I've failed the world, I…" Aang insisted, shaking his head.
Katara gulped and patted his back, not knowing what to say to him.
She held him for what felt like an eternity, hoping he would be able to let his sorrows unfold… yet she rather doubted a few tears would make up for the massive hole in his heart. She could only imagine what this loss meant to him… she knew she would never be able to move on if her Tribe, her family, everyone she loved, was ripped away from her in such heartless fashion.
Nevertheless, Aang had an amazing inner strength Katara could only envy. He was so much stronger than he looked: his losses hadn't turned him into a brooding man, or reduced him to a shadow of who he truly was. She believed wholeheartedly that he could overcome any obstacle in his way…
But he needed to get out of here now, if he was to ever recover from this. Remaining in this house, in the Air Temple, would only depress him further. These wounds would likely never heal, but given time he would be able to put his past behind him and look forward to the future…
"Aang… let's go," said Katara, patting his shoulder and prompting him to leave the house. "Come on. Let's… let's get out of here."
She would have still wanted to see Aang's room, as they had originally planned, but the circumstances clearly wouldn't allow for it. It would be best if they returned to the Southern Water Tribe. They could come back to the Air Temple later, if Aang ever wanted to.
She helped him outside the house, and by then Aang was attempting to dry his tears with the back of his hand. Katara looked at him worriedly.
"Aang…"
"I'm sorry, Katara, I…" he muttered, shaking his head. "I didn't mean to break down like this, but…"
"Aang… I really meant what I said before," Katara said, looking at him with concern. "Please, don't do this to yourself. There's always going to be a regret in the back of your head, asking you what might have been different if you had acted, or if you had been any faster… I know, Aang. I've been through the same thing."
"You?" Aang asked, shocked. "What… what do you mean?"
Katara gritted her teeth before answering, her heart shrinking as she recalled the experience.
"If I had been any more skilled in waterbending, I probably could have frozen cold the man who came to kill my mother. If… if I had found my dad any faster, he could have protected her. But I didn't. And… and she died."
Aang looked at Katara, concerned. The grief he felt was awful, but he had never imagined Katara would carry such a heavy burden as well…
"But after some time blaming myself for it, I realized… it's not really my fault," said Katara. "I wasn't the one who took her life. Yes, I wish I had been stronger, but the only thing I can do about that is becoming stronger now, so that I can protect those I care about if they're ever in danger again. That's… that's what my brother did. And, well… maybe that's what you should do."
"Maybe," said Aang, sighing.
Katara surrounded his shoulders with an arm again, looking at him worriedly.
"Aang…"
"I'll be okay," he said, smiling weakly. "I… I just kept wishing you guys had been wrong. That maybe… that maybe things hadn't been as awful as you thought. But I guess it was too much to ask."
Aang stepped away from her, approaching the area where Appa had remained, dozing off after the long trip. Aang looked at him with a weak smile before turning towards Katara again, drying the last of his tears from his eyes.
"Still, you… you're right, Katara. Blaming myself… it's not going to help, is it? It won't bring them back, and it won't amend my mistakes, nothing will. What's done is done, and all that is left is for us to carry on, to try to make sure it doesn't happen again. Maybe the Air Nomads are gone, but the Water Tribes remain. Maybe my other friends are gone… but now I have you. And even when I wasn't strong enough to protect them, I can try to protect you."
"You don't have to," said Katara, smiling at him. "I'll be able to watch over myself just fine, I hope."
"Yeah. I hope so too," said Aang, smiling back weakly.
Katara hugged him once more, and Aang sighed before returning the embrace. The grief in his heart would never subside, he feared… the pain he felt over the demise of his people would linger in him until his death, most likely. Yet it was up to him to make some use of the life he had… it was up to him to find a way to restore the Air Nomads. Even if he couldn't bring his people back, he could at least try to find a way to repopulate the Air Temples with a new generation one day. If he was to restore balance between all four nations, he had to restore the missing nation as well.
"So… should we go back?" Katara asked, pulling away from him.
Aang sighed and nodded, smiling at the girl.
"Yeah. It'll be for the best," he said. "Let's go, Katara."
Katara smiled, but before she could turn around towards Appa, another figure caught her eye behind Aang. She frowned as she eyed the lemur they had seen before, and she was startled to see it was carrying a peach in his small hands.
"Um… I think he wants to say goodbye," Katara said, pointing at the creature.
Aang frowned and turned, and he found himself smiling when the lemur ran towards them and handed the peach to him.
"Well… hey there, little buddy," said Aang, grinning. "Came to see us off?"
Aang stretched his hand out for the lemur, and it climbed up his arm, settling on his shoulder. Aang chuckled and the lemur handed him the peach, making squeaky sounds as he did.
"Would you look at that. He brought us food for the road, even," said Aang, smiling at Katara. "And here I thought he was afraid of us."
"Well, you did freak him out when you chased after him," said Katara, at which Aang grinned with guilt now.
"I guess I did," he muttered, looking at the lemur with a smile. "So… we must be some of the first people you've seen in quite a while, huh, buddy?"
The lemur didn't answer, he just looked around himself as though trying to spot more food from this privileged position on Aang's shoulder. The Avatar beamed and scratched the lemur's head with his free hand.
"You, Appa and I are all that's left of this place, little fellow," said Aang, sighing. "But… but one day, that will change. I don't know how, but I'll manage to make this place as amazing as it once was. I'll find new airbenders, if possible, and… and I'll teach them all I can about airbending, so that we can restore the Air Nomads."
Katara looked at Aang in amazement. It was the first time he had ever spoken with such determination. Had this visit changed him, or was it merely bringing out the courage he had always had inside him?
"But in the meantime, I'll go back to the South… and you're a pretty lanky fellow, I don't know if you'll be able to put up with the cold," said Aang, smiling weakly at the lemur. "So it'll be best for you to stay here. I'm pretty sure you'll be more than capable of taking care of yourself, if you've survived all along, so…"
The lemur squeaked again in approval, it seemed to Aang. Aang smiled and nodded at him.
"Then you'll stay here… Momo. Yeah, that'll be your name. You'll stay in the Temple, and you'll keep an eye on everything until I get back. How does that sound to you?"
Momo seemed to accept the deal. He jumped off Aang's shoulder and looked at him one last time before darting into the wilderness again. Aang smiled sadly as he wistfully gazed at the Air Temple, hoping it wouldn't be the last time he was here… hoping he would be able to keep the promise he had just made. He would bring his people back one day.
"Let's go," he said, smiling at Katara with a little more enthusiasm now.
Katara smiled back and, together, they walked towards Appa, climbing atop the bison that woke as they took their seats, Katara on the saddle and Aang on the creature's neck.
"Come on, Appa," said Aang, patting the bison's head. "Time to go home."
The trip back to the Southern Water Tribe felt shorter than the one to the Southern Air Temple. Both Aang and Katara were still shaken up by what had happened in the Temple, and thus they had remained silent for most the journey, both lost in their own thoughts.
After a few hours, Aang turned and glanced at Katara, whose gaze was fixed on the deep blue sky. He gulped before climbing up the bison's neck towards the saddle, trusting Appa to fly without anyone steering him.
"Hey…" he said, smiling weakly. "We're getting close to the Pole. I can already see the casket from here."
"So soon?" Katara asked, startled. She looked out over the saddle and found Aang was right. "Well… that was faster than expected."
"Yeah," said Aang, somewhat uneasy. "Say… do you want to share the peach? I mean, since we're about to arrive and all, we could wait until we get there to eat…"
Katara smiled at him and patted the saddle next to her, gesturing at Aang to sit beside her. The Avatar returned the grin and took his seat, taking the peach out of his pocket and splitting it with some difficulty.
"Thanks," Katara said. "I'm amazed that you'd offer to share this with me."
"What…? Why wouldn't I?" said Aang, confused.
"Well, I like Water Tribe food, but you obviously don't," said Katara. "I thought you'd keep this peach all to yourself because it's finally the kind of food you do like."
"Oh, sure… but food is better when you share it with a friend, don't you think?" said Aang, smiling weakly. Katara giggled and took her share of the peach.
"True," she nodded before digging into the fruit.
"Say…" said Aang, looking at her from the corner of his eye. "I'm sorry about what happened back there."
"What? You mean when you cried? That's not something you need to apologize over, Aang…"
"No, I don't mean that," said Aang. "I mean, you asked me to try to connect with Roku, but then I got distracted and that's when I found Gyatso, and then we forgot all about my meditation. I didn't mean for that to happen, I just…"
"It's hard, I know," said Katara, patting him on the shoulder. "I'm not upset about that at all, Aang. If what you told me is true, then he'll come to you when you're ready. I doubt that just meditating before a statue will make you more ready than you are now. I think Roku will find you when the time comes."
"But what if I had to meditate? What if the statue really has something to do with it?" Aang asked.
"I don't know, Aang," said Katara, frowning. "But what I think is that, first of all, you need to be certain that you want to have him guide you through your path as the Avatar. He won't come unless you really want him to, I think."
"You might be right," said Aang, biting his peach and frowning. In truth, he wasn't all that thrilled about his guide appearing before him. Not when he feared recrimination for his mistakes, when he felt as hopeless as he did. How could one of the past Avatars advise him on how to restore the balance in a world as chaotic as this one? How could they have the answers he needed…?
Katara gazed down at the snowy pole, a little disappointed that they would be returning so soon. Still, she was glad to come back to the safety of her home. She looked intently at the snowy mounds far ahead, hoping to spot the Tribe…
But her brow contracted as she saw something else in the field of ice below. She squinted, hoping to get a better look at what stood ahead. The Tribe was there, a thin line on the horizon… but there was a group of people near it.
A group of people clad in red uniforms.
"Aang… Aang!" Katara shouted, startling him as she leapt to her feet, staring down at the ice in horror.
"What's the matter Katara?" Aang said, jumping up as well. "Why are you…?"
"They're attacking the Tribe! The Fire Nation soldiers from the settlement…! They're attacking us!" Katara screamed, horrified.
Aang's heart sank at those words. No… not now. Not right after what he'd seen. Was the Water Tribe next in line for being wiped out…?
He jumped back on Appa's neck and shook the reins fiercely. And upon doing so, he gazed over his animal companion's head and confirmed, to his horror, that Katara was right. The Fire Nation was attacking again.
"Yip yip, Appa! Get us there, fast!" Aang shouted, as Katara gripped the edge of the saddle tightly, her nails digging into the fabric.
"How… why?" Katara asked, gritting her teeth. "How did they know not to attack until we were gone?!"
"Maybe they saw Appa leave," said Aang, gritting his teeth as the bison's speed increased. "They might have sent scouts to look at the Tribe before, and after noticing Appa they refrained from attacking. He's a big creature, they might have thought he would be hostile, so they waited until he was out of the way…!"
"Oh, it doesn't even matter, not really!" said Katara, growing desperate. "We have to… I have to do something, Aang! They can't get away with this!"
"They won't," said Aang, frowning. "They… they won't."
But doubts gripped the Avatar's mind once more. He had been unable to save his people. He had failed once before, could he save the Water Tribe now? Would they reach the fight in time to keep the Water Tribe from falling? Could he make a difference at all in the outcome of this battle? He hadn't been raised for fighting, the monks had always rejected violence of any kind. Their teachings had to live on in him, if they were going to live on at all…
But he had little time to think of what he should do when they finally could see the battle, which was taking place in the territory right in front of the Tribe's icy walls. Aang could only grimace as he watched the fight up ahead. About fifty Fire Nation soldiers, equipped with spears and thick armor, fought against a handful of Water Tribe men whose weapons and protection weren't half as sturdy as those of their opponents.
"Steer him down, Aang! We have to get to them, NOW!" Katara shouted, staring at her fellow tribesmen with concern.
"We can't just descend from over here!" said Aang, worried. "If we do…"
"We'll ambush them! We can get them from behind, so they get a taste of their own medicine!"
"Katara, that's crazy!" said Aang, still steering Appa towards the Tribe. "We'll touch down by the tribe, we can't be so reckless as to ambush them or else they'll end up killing us!"
"If they don't kill us, they'll kill them!" Katara shouted, looking at Aang with determined eyes.
"Katara…" Aang said, turning towards her and begging her with his eyes to bear with him. "We'll be able to fight them off, I promise, but just… don't be so reckless, Katara. If you fight violence with violence…"
"You'll get a better result than by doing nothing," Katara declared, angrily, climbing up the edge of the saddle. "I'm sorry, Aang… but I won't stand by while I watch my people get massacred!"
"No, Katara, don't be so…! Katara!" Aang shouted, trying to reach out for her, but it was too late.
The waterbender launched herself down into the snowy fields, taking a very hard blow when she reached the ground. She went down on her knees, grimacing at the pain, but the sound of her fall served to drift the attention of the soldiers away from her Tribesmen as they turned around to look at her, about forty meters away from where they were.
"Where…? Where did she come from?!" asked one of the soldiers, just as Katara waved her arms around herself, bringing forth spikes of ice from the ground.
"It's the waterbender!" shouted another one.
Most the soldiers jumped back, terrified at the girl's prowess. She had always been skilled, but it seemed as though she were stronger now than the last time they had fought against her. Nevertheless, they wouldn't allow themselves to waver. Several of them leapt forward to attack Katara, some of them shouting for their nation as they raised their spears above their heads.
And Aang watched from above, aghast. She had jumped… she was putting her life in the line to save her people, just as he had intended to do back when he had heard about the Fire Nation's attack on the Air Nomads.
Gritting his teeth, Aang forced himself to recognize the truth as he looked down at the conflict below. Perhaps he could make a mess of things, perhaps the outcome wouldn't be what he wanted it to be. But if he didn't do something, if he didn't act now, the Water Tribe would suffer the same fate the Air Nomads had. Even if he didn't know if he was strong enough, even when he was certain that violence wasn't the answer, the answer wouldn't be to stand by and do nothing either, much as Katara had just told him.
"Boy… let's do this," said Aang, patting Appa on the head before jumping down, allowing gravity to pull him to the ground.
Appa roared, scaring the Fire Nation soldiers and eliciting cheers from the Water Tribe warriors. Aang pulled together the snow in order to make his landing much lighter. He fell right between Katara and the soldiers, and upon reaching the ground he stomped strongly on the ice and stretched his arms out.
A wall of ice rose so powerfully that the entire casket shook with the force of Aang's bending. The Water Tribe warriors ran back to the safety of the Tribe while Aang brought forth a ten-foot tall wall to separate the Fire Nation soldiers from them.
Katara watched him in utter awe. How had he managed to bend something so immense in such short time span? She was stuck on the same side of the wall with the Fire Nation soldiers, all the same as Appa, who touched down on the ground and attacked the soldiers by striking the ice with his tail and sending a gust at them.
The soldiers couldn't put up with the power of the air Appa had sent their way. They flew back, crashing against the ice wall. Appa roared again, looking at them with fierce brown eyes. Katara smiled as she looked at him, and she beamed even more upon raising her eyes towards Aang. So… he had acted at last. And what an act had it been…
Aang stepped forward towards the soldiers, who stared at him in awe and fear. Since when had there been two waterbenders in the Pole?
"Leave the Water Tribe alone," Aang commanded, angrily. "You have no business invading territories that don't belong to you! The Fire Nation has nothing to do here!"
"Y-you… you're not going to get away with giving us orders!" shouted one of the soldiers, reaching out towards him.
Aang stretched a hand towards the snow underneath the soldier, which solidified and became slippery ice. The soldier tripped and fell in quite an embarrassing fashion, to his utter horror, but even though normally that would have been a rather amusing sight, nobody found it funny. Not even Aang.
"Go back to your settlement, or better yet, go back to the Fire Nation!" Aang shouted. "You don't belong here! I'll let you go peacefully so long as you swear you will not bother the Water Tribe ever again!"
"Aang… you can't just let them go! We should capture them, they're in our grasp…!" Katara said.
"No," said Aang, frowning. "We're not going to become like them, Katara. If… if we're going to make this a better world, then we're not going to do what they do. We'll restore balance without becoming the Fire Nation."
Aang's words made Katara stare at him in utter shock. He had said what?! He was going to do it, then? He would change the world? He would restore balance? He would fight this war?
Aang focused on the soldiers once more, raising his hands menacingly.
"Don't come back here," he said again. "Go back to where you belong, and leave the Water Tribe in peace!"
Nobody answered this time. Terrified of his skills and his presence, the soldiers had backed down into submission. Aang lowered his hands and walked towards Appa.
"I'll keep an eye on you to make sure you go back straight to your settlement, you heard me? So get going already!"
Katara approached him as Aang climbed atop the bison's neck, and he stretched a hand to help her up with him. The bison took up to the sky and Aang glared at the soldiers from above. They didn't move at first, but slowly they began retreating. Aang continued to leer at them menacingly as he watched them leave in defeat, satisfied by the outcome of this unforeseen conflict.
Aang didn't relax until the last of the soldiers was long gone. Katara sat behind him on the bison's back, and she placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder as she let him know it was safe to go back now. Aang sighed and nodded, and he steered Appa over the wall of ice, in order to descend on the Tribe.
"Haha! Way to go!" shouted Hakka, beaming at the Avatar. "That was amazing, Aang!"
"You guys got here just on time!" said Yuro, smiling as well. "We had no warning they were coming, the fight had barely begun by the time you guys showed up!"
"That's good to know," said Katara, climbing off Appa. "Did anyone get hurt? Is everyone okay?"
"It looked worse than it was," said Hakoda, embracing his daughter tightly once she reached the ground. "Kattan has a bloody nose after taking the butt of a spear to the face, and I almost got my chest hacked open, but I got out of the way before the soldier could reach me."
"Good to know you did," said Katara, growing worried at the thought of her father facing such a threat to his life. "I'm sorry we left, we shouldn't have… if we hadn't gone they wouldn't have attacked today."
"It's nothing to apologize about," said Hakoda. "You couldn't have known this would happen."
"I suspect… I suspect they decided to attack when they saw Appa was gone" said Aang, frowning. "He's so big, they probably didn't even know what he was and they were too wary to attack while he was here. So when they saw him leave…"
"It's a possibility," said Hakoda, sighing. "Would they know he's a sky bison?"
"I don't know," said Aang, grimacing. "Because if they realize he is, they might also realize that I'm…"
"You didn't airbend at them, though," said Katara, frowning.
"I did jump off Appa without an issue," said Aang, grimacing.
"Well, I also survived jumping off a bison several feet above the ground and I'm no airbender," said Katara, smiling at him. "Maybe they don't know yet. Hopefully, they won't have realized you're the Avatar."
"Hopefully," said Aang, sighing and flattening his hair with a hand. "My arrows don't show, do they?"
"Nope," said Katara, smiling and patting him on the shoulder.
"Why are you so happy?" Aang asked, looking at Katara with concern. "Your tribe was just attacked…"
"Well…" said Katara, looking at him with kind eyes. "The fact that you stood up to them, that you… that you pushed them back as you did! It's just amazing, Aang. Never before had we been able to send them running back to their settlement with their tails between their legs. What you just did…"
Aang looked at Katara in shock, awed by the expression on her face. She was… she was hopeful. And so were all her tribesmen, who were also beaming at him.
"A while back you said you were just one man, didn't you?" said Katara. "That a single man can't restore balance in a world… and you're probably right. By yourself, you can't do much. The world is comprised by so many people, and there's so much to do that to expect you to be able to pull this off on your own is unreasonable. You can't change the world in one day, and you can't do it by yourself, but you can change it in the long run. You can restore balance, Aang, by fighting every battle, one at a time. By protecting the Water Tribe, by making sure they don't trample all over us in as they have with other nations in the past."
"And by doing this, you'll gain allies," said Kattan. "And once you've got enough allies, you'll be able to take down the Fire Nation!"
Hakoda seemed to grow uneasy at the cheerfulness of the younger members of the Tribe, but he found himself focusing on Aang soon enough. The Avatar seemed surprised by the way everyone was responding, but there was more in his eyes than just that astonishment. It was as though he had grown conscious of the weight that he carried on his shoulders, and he had accepted it was his burden. He had realized it was up to him to make a difference. Yet he wasn't as wishful or innocent as the others… he knew what was at stake far better than Katara or Kattan could.
"Thanks, Katara, Kattan," said Aang, smiling weakly. "But… but until the battles down here have really been won, I'm not going out there to overthrow the Fire Nation."
"W-what?" said Kattan, startled.
Katara sighed and nodded. Disappointing as it may be to hear this, it was as she had expected from him. She had just said so herself, hadn't she? Restoring the balance wouldn't take one day, it would take a lot of effort, and it might as well take an entire lifetime. Yet it was what had to be done, what Aang would do. And she would follow Aang, no matter which path he decided to take to restore balance.
"I'm sorry to disappoint you," said Aang, looking at Kattan. "But I'm not going to leave the Tribe again as leisurely as I did this time, in order to fight a war I don't know if I can win. If I did that, what would happen to you guys? What if they attacked again?"
"We'd manage to fight them off somehow, Aang! It's not like we can't…!"
"Maybe you can," said Aang. "But before going out there to face the Fire Lord, I have to make sure this first threat is out of the way. You win a war by taking small victories first, don't you?"
"I… I guess," said Kattan, surprised now. "Then… it's a strategy? You're going to get rid of the settlement before going out into the world again?"
"I'll try," said Aang, sighing. "There… there has to be a way to do it. But yes. I'm going to make sure the Water Tribe is safe before doing anything else."
"That's good to know," said Hakoda, smiling and patting Aang on the shoulder. "That's… that's the wisdom of a leader, Aang. First things first. Still… regarding fighting the Fire Nation…"
"I know," said Aang, nodding. "I know you think it's crazy, and we shouldn't get involved in a battle when we're not bound to win. But… but I'm the Avatar. It's my duty to restore balance. I just have to find my own way to do it. A way in which shedding so much blood isn't necessary…"
"And I'll support you, whatever way you choose to fight this war," said Katara, smiling brightly at Aang.
Aang smiled at her, thankful for her support. The others seemed rather startled by her acceptance of Aang's ways, and it seemed as though they were still having a hard time understanding the Avatar's plans.
Nevertheless, nobody complained about his decision. The Tribe returned slowly to its calm state while that rush of excitement subsided, and Aang lowered the ice wall once again. The wall might have worked as a very useful shield just now, but it wasn't going to help him protect the Water Tribe on the long run…
"Thanks, Aang," Katara said, once he was done bending the ice.
"You're welcome. Good to know I wasn't the only one who thought the view shouldn't be covered with this wall. I figured we'd need perfect visibility in case they attack once again…"
"That's not what I'm talking about," said Katara, smiling and standing right next to him. "I mean… for what you did today. All of it. It was fun, and also rather stressful, but I can assure you this was the most exciting day of my life."
Aang looked at her in surprise before smiling at her.
"I'm glad you saw it that way."
"I know how hard it was for you to choose to fight… I know that's not the way you do things," said Katara. "And I understand you were taught not to be violent. So… I appreciate that, in order to protect my Tribe, you went out of your way and acted as you did. You defended us, even when there might be a great cost to it. If they did realize you're the Avatar, they might just send more people to capture you…"
"Well, that is if they actually figure it out," said Aang. "Hopefully they won't. But even if they do, I won't let them take me. We'll defend the South Pole, Katara. Together."
Katara smiled and nodded enthusiastically. Aang beamed back at her, ecstatic to see her as happy as she was now. He wouldn't let anyone erase that smile from her face. He wouldn't let the Fire Nation destroy her people as they had destroyed his. Even if he wasn't going to change everything right away by staying down South to fight, he finally felt ready to face this war.