Katara had never been a fan of big and hairy animals. The only ones she had known from back home were polar bear dogs, and they had been annoying more than anything, breaking into food supplies and stealing other things sometimes. When she had come into the earth kingdom, none of the other animals that were big and hairy impressed her.

With one flying fluffy exception.

"Let's keep the soap out of your eyes, ok Appa?"

The sky bison yawned in response, which Katara only found to be adorable. Normally she would be annoyed at having to wash such a large and hairy animal, but Appa was just so likable and so cooperative. He listened to her and did as she asked, making it much easier to clean him off.

"Hey, Katara. Where's Aang and Gyatso?"

Katara recognized her brother's voice. He was coming up from behind, so she turned around to see him.

"The two of them went on a short trip. Gyatso said it was supposed to help Aang connect more to the past. Though he didn't say when they would come-"

Katara's voice stopped when she saw her brother. Wearing face paint. And a dress. And holding Kyoshi-style fans.

"Alright. I just wanted to know. We'll just wait for them to come back," Sokka said as he played around with the dress skirt. " I'll talk to you later Katara. Suki needs me in the dojo."

Sokka walked away, leaving a very confused and somewhat amused Katara to wash Appa. All she knew was that she was going to ask Suki for all the details later.

"Monk Gyatso, where are we headed?"

"Someplace important Aang. I will explain more once we are closer."

Sighing, Aang sat back on his side of the boat. He and Gyatso had done nothing but sail and occasionally talk to each other for the past three days. Aside from a few interesting animals in the water, there wasn't anything to really keep them entertained as they went to their destination.

And Aang had no idea where the destination was. He had tried to get an answer out of Gyatso, but his teacher was as slippery as an eel-hound when it came to keeping the secret.

Flying around wasn't an option either. Gyatso had both air gliders under his care, and he made sure Aang didn't go anywhere.

With so much boredom, was it any wonder that Aang nearly fell asleep that morning before Gyatso called out to him?

"Aang. We are here."

Opening his eyes, Aang also felt them widen when he saw what they had both come to see. It looked mostly like a mountain. Though if he tried to look at the top, Aang could make out what seemed to be a building at the top of the mountain. Buildings that looked somewhat familiar.

"Where are we?"

Rather than answer him, Gyatso took both air gliders, handing one of them over to Aang. "You will need this if we are to reach the top of the mountain."

"Reach the top?' Aang asked as he took his glider. "What are we going to find up there? What are we even here for?"

"We are here because you need to find a greater connection to your past, my young student," Gyatso informed. "Until now, I was focused on motivating you to train solely to accomplish your duties as the avatar. But if I want you to truly understand why the world must be fixed, you must first understand what was lost."

Understand what was lost? Aang had to take a moment to process that information and make sense of it. This place had to be important. Not just historically, but personally if Gyatso was being so reverent towards it. Something to do with the past...

"This place is important to airbenders, isn't it Monk Gyatso?"

"Yes. Welcome to the Southern Air Temple."

Aang had often wondered how the original temples used to look. There were illustrations made back in the temple at the South Pole, but pictures didn't always represent the real thing all that well. And that was certainly the case here.

The Southern Air Temple was certainly much bigger up close. Even if it didn't look as prestigious up close. Though that might have to do with the hundred years that had passed since anyone had lived at the temple. Even the air above it felt stale and lifeless, making flying towards the temple not as fun as Aang would like it to be.

Trying to distract himself, Aang looked for anything else that might be interesting in the area. Noticing what his student was doing, Gyatso aided him.

"Aang. Look down there. Do you see the wooden roofs?"

Aang did. He also saw what looked like stale hay and something full of dirty old water.

"That used to be the stables for the bison. Back when the temple was full, they would roam all over the temple, only stopping when they needed rest or when they had to care for the young."

"Do you think Appa would like it?"

"Perhaps. But we would need to clean it first. Look there now."

Aang saw an entire area cleared off for everything except for several dozens of wooden poles. Each side of the area had had goalposts. Which meant...

"You can play Airball there! I've always wanted to try and play it. Do we have a ball to try it out?"

Gyatso smiled at Aang's enthusiasm. "Perhaps we can try it another time. Right now we have another reason to be here."

"What is the reason?"

"You will see. The entrance isn't far from here. Come with me Aang."

Gyatso began to descend, with Aang following closely after him. The two of them landed on the ground just before a massive door. One that was outfitted with a device that seemed like it was meant for airbenders, based on all the tubes it had on.

"You know how to work these, right Aang?"

"Yup! Blow just enough air into them, and you'll walk right in."

"Good. Go ahead."

Gathering a sufficient amount of air into his arms, Aang led the amounted wind into the different holes, making sure each one was filled with enough to move the machines. Once each machine piece was turned, the door began to open.

"Follow me Aang. There is something inside that you need to see."

Walking behind Gyatso, Aang entered a real Air Temple for the first time in his life.

Aang could feel the amount of history in each hall that they passed. The tapestry was dusty but was also intricate. The wall decorations were expectedly minimal, but they all looked like they were painstakingly designed. And there were also portraits of a few ancient masters hung up on different walls. There was one that caught Aang's eye, portraying a meditating monk levitating above the ground.

"Monk Gyatso, who's that?"

"That is Guru Laghima. The first and only Airbender in our history to achieve the power of flight."

Aang's eyes widened. "He could fly? Wait, can you do that? Can I?"

Gyatso chuckled. "No Aang. I have not mastered such a technique. And I doubt that either of us ever will."

"Really?" Aang asked in disappointment. being able to fly without a glider sounded like it would be very useful. And fun. "Why not?"

"To achieve flight means to completely untether oneself from the earth. To have no attachments to any possession or ideal in the material world. To completely detach oneself from one's surroundings."

Aang frowned. "So we can't fly because we care?"

"It's a little more complicated than that. But it is a discussion for another time. Come along."

Aang followed behind Gyatso until they reached another room. Before they entered, Gyatso made sure to prepare Aang.

"You must be prepared for anything that might happen when I open this door."

"Why? What's going to happen?"

"I am not sure."

Aang frowned. "Then why are you worried?"

"This room carries a special significance not just to the history of the world, but it will be personally significant to you as well. I just... want you to be prepared for anything that may happen in there."

Aang didn't have the full context, so he couldn't be completely ready. Even so, he nodded at his master and father figure. "Ok Monk Gyatso. I'll be careful."

Smiling softly, Gyatso opened the door. Letting Aang finally see what was inside. It was...

A bunch of statues.

Aang's brow furrowed as he looked at all the stone recreations of different people. People who didn't all look like they were air nomads. Some of them looked like they were water tribe or...

"These are people from all the four nations," Aang realized.

"Yes. But they are more than that. Can you recognize any of them? Can you feel any of them?"

Frowning, Aang walked inside the room started to roam amongst the statues. He studied a few of them to see if they made any connection. To see if any of them awoke something in his mind or any of his spirit. But they weren't. There was one statue of a very tall woman wearing some sort of weird headdress, but that was it.

"I'm not feeling anything Monk Gyatso. Who are... they?"

Aang felt different when he noticed something about the room. It was one big circle. Sort of.

The whole room had been structured like a spiral. Beginning with one statue, all the successive ones looped and circled around the other. And Aang was standing in the middle of all of them. Staring at the last statue.

The statue depicted an old man with long hair and a long beard. His hair was kept in a top knot, which could only mean one thing.

"He's from the fire nation."

"Yes. But there is more than that. Look deeper Aang. What do you see?"

Aang did what Gyatso asked of him. He stared at the statue trying to figure out what was so special about it. He looked at every detail, settling on the marble eyes.

That's when he saw the glow.

It might have come from one of the cracks in the ceiling, but Aang could swear that lights came out of the statue's eyes as well. A glow that encompassed the entire room once Aang saw it. The young monk had to cover his eyes to prevent himself from being blinded.

And when he opened them again, he wasn't standing in a stone room anymore. He was literally standing on clouds. He couldn't see any ground below his feet, but he could feel something solid under him. And he could see a blue sky where a ceiling had once been. And a cool breeze where stale temple air had once been.

And he wasn't alone anymore.

Aang wasn't staring at a statue of an old man anymore. Now he was looking at-

Another kid, like himself.

Very much like himself. They were both obviously air nomads. Both were dressed in nomad traditional clothes. Both had their heads shaved. Both had the traditional gray eyes of airbenders. The only physical difference being that while Aang had tattoos, but the other boy didn't.

That, and their faces were very different. Aang had his nervous smile still attached to his face. Even as he was nervous, he tried to maintain his joy. A joy that the other boy didn't seem to share.

His face was a scowl, with his furrowed eyes displaying a strange mixture of anger, resentment, frustration, and sadness. So many contradictory emotions boiling inside him, visible through his pupils. And all of them were all being directed at Aang.

Still, a frown could be turned upside down. Aang could try and be nice. Figure out what was going on, where he was. If he managed to lift the other boys' mood, he was sure things could work out.

"Hi. I'm-"

"So. You're my replacement."

Aang gulped. His plan might not be so easy as he hoped.

Foggy Swamp...

Zuko had to admit. The fried bugs didn't taste too bad once you got past the fact that they were, well, bugs. And when they were fried, the crunch actually added flavor. He was beginning to wonder how Azula would feel if she saw him like this. Or how she would feel if someone asked to eat it.

Huh. He hadn't thought about Azula in...a while. He wondered how she reacted to the letter every now and again, but he hadn't thought about her specifically in a while. Was that a good or bad thing?

"Nephew? Are you alright? You're staring at that bug rather intensely."

"Huh?" Zuko snapped back to reality. The one where he was sitting around a fire with his uncle, Toph, and Huu. "Sorry. I was just thinking about stuff."

"Such as?"

"Family."

Iroh didn't press any further after. Whether Zuko was thinking about Ozai, Azula, or perhaps Ursa, it was a delicate topic to discuss. And one best left untouched in front of strangers.

"You wanna know what I'm thinking about?" Toph levitated her muddy rock seat above everyone else, just so they would pay attention to her. "How much longer are we going to be in this Swamp?"

Zuko frowned at her. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, you already know how to waterbend now. Why don't we just go and find an Airbender for you already?"

"Toph, Zuko is not yet a master of any element," Iroh said. Upon seeing Zuko's frown, he added, "We have only been here for a few weeks. A month at most. it will take longer than that to truly acclimate to a new bending style. It is why we spent so much time near your estate."

"I guess," Toph relented as she swallowed her bug whole. Zuko didn't even want to ask how she could do that. "I'm just getting tired of the mud."

"I never thought I would hear you say that."

"Me neither," Toph admitted. "I just miss traveling. I want to get on the move. Can't Sparky just memorize some water moves to learn while we go somewhere else?"

"It's a little more complicated than that." Huu, who had been mostly silent up until this point, decided to speak up. "You can't just read a scroll and suddenly pick up waterbending from it. It's a lot more complicated than that. You need to understand a bending style's philosophy and culture before you can actually make sense of it."

"Sparky's been here for a while. He understands, doesn't he?"

"Uh... well..."

"VESSEL!"

The sudden yell was accompanied by the sudden appearance of a distressed chaos spirit jumping in front of Zuko.

"Vaatu? What are you doing here? And what's with the yelling?"

"Pack whether important material possessions you have. We need to go to the North Pole."

Zuko's eyes widened. "What? Why would we want to go there? In case you didn't know, their borders are locked and we don't have a ship."

"That doesn't matter."

"How does that not matter? What's going on Vaatu?"

"Something we should have expected."

Not wanting to waste time explaining, Vaatu lifted one of his tendrils and connected it to Zuko's head. It was Vaatu's way of transferring knowledge from his consciousness onto Zuko's mind.

"Zuko!"

"Is that normal?"

"What's going on?"

When the spirit connected to his head, Zuko was able to feel the presence of another spirit many miles away. A spirit that rivaled him in power, but contradicted him in almost every other way. That spirit was even in a location very similar to the place that he had first become spiritually attuned. Another Air Temple.

And there was something else. It wasn't just another powerful spirit he was feeling. There was a human presence there as well. One that was similar to himself.

Vaatu removed his tendril from Zuko's head. The sudden disconnect made Zuko fall back. Thankfully, Iroh was there to catch him.

"Zuko. Nephew!" Iroh glared at Vaatu. "What did you do?"

"I gave him my reasons. The explanation that he sought. Now he understands."

When Zuko's eyes opened again, there was none of the lightness and ease that had been there previously. There was only frustration, and what seemed to be irritation.

"I'm not the only Avatar in this world."

Zuko turned his head to his stunned uncle, whose eyes were wide with relief and confusion. He saw Toph, who was just confused. Huu was more curious than anything, his chin in his hands as he just listened to those around him. Predictably, it was Iroh who questioned him further.

"Zuko? What do you mean?"

"Vaatu is right. We can't stay here much longer."

This is where the fun begins. Raava released a lot of spiritual energy when she allowed Aang and Tenzin to meet. And because of that, Vaatu could sense her. And because of that, Zuko knows that his opposing force now has a vessel.

I also enjoyed writing about Aang's visit to the air temple in a different context. In the original canon, he went there to search for his people and became enraged and distraught when he fully accepted that the genocide happened. Here, he is a boy with a massive responsibility thrust upon learning more about his heritage and realizing that he needs to fight to preserve it. It's a nice dichotomy, at least to me.

The next chapter will set forward the new direction for the story. One that I am looking forward to.

Anyway, please leave reviews, tell me what you think, and I will see you all next time.

Bye!