"You have no idea where you are going do you?" Sokka asked, pulling a map down from in front of his face with an eyebrow raised.
Aang turned around his hands still on the reigns. "Well I know it's near water." He chuckled nervously.
"I guess we are getting close then." Danny said sarcastically, as he looked out into the vast blue seemingly endless ocean they were flying over, no land in sight. Watching the water below them was almost hypnotic, Danny didn't take his eyes off of it as they flew.
Danny was deciding to stick with these guys, they were nice enough and he had no idea where he was really. It was obvious this wasn't earth. Or his earth. All of these strange new things like bending, Avatar's, and strange animals. The trio explained a bit about what this 'avatar' thing was after Danny was really confused. The way they had described it to him was there was a person that would get reincarnated every 100 or so years, and they would be the Avatar (Basically a superhero). They could control all elements whereas other people would only control 1 or none at all. Aang also talked about how the Avatar was the bridge between the spirit world and the human world.
Danny was really intrigued by the last part of that, 'the spirit world' sounded a lot like the ghost zone, Aang mentioned he never saw the place before, but was told a lot of strange stories about it. But maybe these guys could help him out with getting home. Maybe Aang would be able to find a way to get Danny into the ghost zone. Get home.
But he was still very wary of these new people. He had only met them a day ago, and he couldn't exactly get away if he wanted to. They were flying hundreds of feet in the air on the back of a flying six-legged buffalo that was surprisingly cute. If Danny did have his powers he could fly away easily. Right now, staying with these guys is the best and only option.
Danny was snapped out of his thoughts when Aang spoke up suddenly, "Momo, marbles please." He asked the lemur that was sitting on his shoulder. He then crawled inside his shirt and grabbed a couple of marbles from one of Aang's pockets, and placed it in his hand. "Hey Katara, check out this cool air bending trick I learned." He uses the air to spin the marbles around in his hand making a spiral. Danny thought it was quite cool, seeing as he had never really seen any bending before.
"That's great Aang." Katara said dryly, not taking her eyes off of the navy blue cloth she was sewing in her lap.
"You didn't even look." Aang muttered with a disappointed voice. Stopping the marbles from spinning and then holding them clamped in his hand. Katara put down the cloth and turned to Aang.
"That's great."
"But I am not doing it now." He looked down at his hands. Sokka butted in.
"Stop bugging her airhead, you need to give girls space when they do their sewing." He waved his hand dismissively in the air.
"What does me being a girl have to do with sowing?" Katara had an angry tone in her voice. Danny smirked at her reaction, but was still facing away from the others.
"Its simple girls are better at fixing pants than guys, and guys are better at hunting and fighting and stuff like that." Sokka explained. "it's just the natural order of things."
Danny cringed; he knew what was coming. If he ever said anything like that to Sam, he would get an earful and probably a kick in the shins.
"All done with your pants, and look what a great job I did." She responded snarkily, holding up the pants with a large hole still torn in them. She threw them at Sokka's face and crossed her arms. Danny chuckled.
"Wait, wait I was just kidding I can't wear these." He stuck his hand through the hole in the pants, "Katara please."
Danny crossed his arms. "You are just going to dig yourself a bigger grave, man."
Sokka glared at Danny for not taking his side, who shrugged in return. Aang spoke up.
"Don't worry Sokka, where we are going you won't need any pants."
Danny turned to Aang with a confused look on his face as they started to land down on an island that Danny didn't notice before.
"We just made a pit stop yesterday when we found Danny falling out of the sky, shouldn't we get a little more flying done before we camp out?" Sokka asked as he climbed down off of Appa, landing on the dirt with a thud.
"He is right, at this rate we won't get to the north pole until spring." Katara added.
"But Danny is hurt, he should get some rest." Aang tried to protest, turning and gesturing to Danny who was still standing on top of Appa's saddle.
"No, I am fine. You don't need to worry about me. And it is not like we aren't resting while we are on Appa, he is the one doing all the work."
"Well um," Aang looked around trying to think quickly of some sort of excuse. Danny recognized that look from when he and his friends had to come up with something to hide his ghostliness from his parents or something. "Appa is getting tired," He started. "aren't you boy?" Aang looked up to his bison who had no response whatsoever to the question. "I said, aren't you boy?" Aang asked again louder, nudging his arm against Appa's leg. Appa seemed to roll his eyes and let out a large dramatic yawn.
Sokka shrugged his shoulders. "Yeah, that was really convincing." He said sarcastically, rolling his eyes.
Danny slid down Appa's side, adding. "Hard to argue with a ten-ton magical monster."
Aang yelled out. "Look!" He pointed out to the water as a ginormous orange and yellow fish with frilly fins leaped out of the water before diving back in with a huge splash. "That's why we are here: Elephant koi, and I am going to ride them. Katara, you got to watch me!" He jumped into the water headfirst and started swimming further out.
Sokka turned around to Danny and Katara, and waved his finger around his head in a crazy motion. Danny chuckled.
Suddenly, a humongous koi fish with different coloring then the first one leaped out of the water with Aang clinging onto its dorsal fin on its back.
Katara turned to Sokka. "He looks pretty good out there."
Sokka rolled his eyes. "Are you kidding me? The fish is doing all the work."
Katara turned around to see Appa was chewing on one of their sleeping bags that had fallen off the saddle, and she ran over trying to pull it out of his mouth.
Sokka stopped watching Aang and started to look over at Danny. Sokka didn't really trust Danny just yet. This was strange, he just falls out of the sky with recent burn marks and injuries, and then moments later Zuko shows up to attack them. For all he knew Danny was a fire nation sent there to spy on them something. But then if that was the case why would he be all burned. It didn't seem like Zuko knew him.
Danny could tell that Sokka was scanning over him and was in deep thought, but he wasn't going to say anything. Mentioning something like that would just make him suspicious. Danny suddenly froze when he spotted a dark shadow swimming through the water, it was much bigger than any of the other koi that were in the lake. "There is something in the water, and it doesn't look friendly." He commented, sharing a look with Sokka who undoubtedly saw it too.
Sokka ran closer to the beach shore, his toes just touching the water. "Aang, there's something in the water!" He called out. Just then, one of the koi was pulled under the water by the creature. Danny's eyes widened slightly as he was trying to survey the situation. His eyes flicking back and forth from Aang to the shadow.
Katara ran back around the corner hearing Sokka shout. "What's wrong?" She asked.
"Aang's in trouble." Sokka answered before waving his hands in the air trying to get the boy's attention. "Aang!"
"Get out of there." Katara added.
Aang turned to face the group on the shore and started to wave with a bright cheerful smile on his face. Suddenly something scared the koi he was riding and it stopped abruptly, throwing him in the middle of the open water. A huge black fin emerged behind Aang as he started to tread water.
Danny's core tightened in his chest, someone was in trouble, Aang could be hurt. His obsession pounding on him making his head and core ake. trying to urge him to transform, do anything that could help. He fell to the ground and grabbed his neck as electricity surged through him; this thing was going to give him a painful shock every time he tried to use his powers. He needed a way to get it off, he didn't have time to think about it.
He was still quite hurt from his injuries and from falling through the portal, even if he didn't have this thing in his neck he would hardly be able to use his powers. He clenched his fist and his knuckles whitened. He tried to summon any energy he had left into his hand, to fire at least one blast to distract the creature. Aang jumped into the air and started running for shore. He was running on top of the water he was so fast getting out of there.
Aang ran as fast as he could and as soon as he got to the shore he crashed into Sokka and they both flew into a tree and a pile of snow that was behind them. Danny stopped trying to redirect the ectoplasm into his hand and breathed a sigh of relief as the creature turned around and started to swim back out to sea.
Suddenly Danny collapsed, he was drained from the pain the chip gave him from even attempting to go ghost, His head was splitting. "Danny!" Katara called out as she ran over to where Danny had collapsed. But before she could get there, multiple people jumped down from the trees and grabbed each of the team members, and one of them ran over and picked up Danny from off the ground roughly. They tied up everyone and blindfolded them, including Danny who at the moment was knocked out cold.
They were carried up the mountain by the warriors and tied to a big wooden post. Danny was still out but slowly starting to stir. Suddenly someone's voice called out to the group.
"You four have some explaining to do."
"And if you don't answer all of our questions, we are throwing you back in the water with the Unagi." A woman's voice added
"Show yourself, cowards!" Sokka yelled, still tied to the log and blindfolded. The woman walked up to the boy and ripped the blindfold off him, throwing it onto the ground. Three of the women behind them removed the blindfolds of everyone else that were tied to the tree, including Danny even though he was still out.
Sokka looked over the girls in green samurai uniforms that stood in front of them. "Who are you, and where are the men that ambushed us?"
The leader of the group scowled at the question. "There are no men, we ambushed you." She threw her hands down angrily. "Now tell us who are you, and what are you doing here?"
Sokka scoffed "Wait a second, there is no way a bunch of girls took us down."
The leader walked up to Sokka and grabbed him by the neck of his jacket looking him in the eye. "A bunch of girls huh? The Unagi is going to eat well tonight." She smirked.
Katara whipped around hearing this and called out to the girl. "No, don't hurt him! He didn't mean it. My brother is just an idiot sometimes." She tried to quickly explain to the angry warrior who still had a hold on her older brother.
Aang spoke up. "It's my fault. I am sorry we came here, I just wanted to ride the elephant koi." Suki let go of Sokka's collar and turned to face the bald boy. An older looking man called out.
"how do we know you aren't fire nation spies? Kyoshi has stayed out of the war so far, and we intend to keep it that way."
Aang's face brightened. "This island is named for Kyoshi? I know Kyoshi." He claimed.
The man waved his hand dismissively at the boy. "Ha, how could you possibly know her, she was born here four hundred years ago. She has been dead for centuries." A grin spread across Aang's face.
"I know her because I am the Avatar."
Suki shook her fist in the air, while the man's jaw dropped to the ground. "Th-That's impossible," she called out. "the last avatar was an air bender who disappeared a hundred years ago." Her eyes narrowed at the boy.
"That me." Aang claimed with a smile. The man scowled.
"Throw the imposter to the Unagi." He demanded. The women stepped forward holding yellow fans as weapons.
Aang looked around and then air bended himself into the air, and he flew over the statue of Avatar Kyoshi that was on top of the pillar they were tied to. The man whipped back around.
"It's true, you are the avatar." Everyone stood in shock.
"Now check this out!" Aang exclaimed as he reached for his marbles in his pocket and started spinning them around in his hand. A crowd behind the Kyoshi warriors cheered, whereas the warriors themselves were in silent awe.
Katara laughed for a second and then remembered that Danny had just collapsed before they were taken. "Danny, is he okay?" She asked worriedly. Danny was on the back of the post opposite Katara so she didn't see him.
Suki stepped forward to undo the rope tying them up. "Your friend was already knocked out when we ambushed you."
Sokka turned around. "He was badly hurt when we found him yesterday, maybe you should check it out. Do you have anything that can help?" he asked lifting Danny from where he was tied to the log.
Two of the warriors walked up and picked Danny up by his arms. "We will take him to our healer." One of them said as they were walking away. "There is no need to worry, he will be fine soon."
x
Danny's eyes flickered open, his head still aching. As Danny rolls over he realizes that his bandages are different, softer and his burn is stinging. Not like pain from the burn itself, but more like when you put antiseptic on a cut.
He heard footsteps and sat up to see a woman in flowing green robes, with armor layered overtop. Her face was painted white, with pale red accents extending like wings from her eyelids. Danny would call it theatrical, if it didn't make her look so warlike. Besides, he thought, it's not like it was any stranger than anything else in this world. "Good, you are awake." She started, her voice sounded young. "Those burns were pretty bad, I was just coming to check on you." Danny smiled.
"Thanks, but I am fine." He paused a second looking around again. "Where are we?" He was on some sort of wooden table, and the walls had green tapestries and gold accents flowing down to the floor.
"You are on Kyoshi island, your friends are here too, somewhere in town." She gave a warm smile. "My name is Kyani."
"My name is Danny. Oh, and thanks for healing me up." He chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck.
"I didn't heal you; I was more of an assistant." She blushed slightly, leaning back.
"Well, thanks anyway."
"I am going to go train with the other warriors; it's a bit early to be leaving but would you like to come with me?" She asked, helping Danny up from the table.
Danny hesitated for a second, thinking over it. "Sure, sounds cool."
x
Once they reached the wooden building, none of the other Kyoshi warriors had shown up yet. They walked in and Danny scanned over the room, this place was elegant, it looked to be a great place for training that involved more fighting techniques or swords than something for energy blasters. The back wall was layered with an assortment of weapons, like katanas, daggers, and quite a few fans.
One of the weapons instantly caught Danny's eye, it was a katana that had what looked like a green dragon carving on it, when it came to the dragon you could see through it, like it was glass. The dragon spread all the way down the blade. "What is this one?" Danny asked, carefully lifting it off of the wall.
Kyani walked over and looked at what he was holding. "That is the spirit blade, it was known to be the weapon of Kohret The Protector. He would be able to use it to ward off evil spirits or ghosts." Danny twisted it around in this hand and sliced it slowly through the air. "We don't use it though, it is mostly decorative. It's way too light to do any damage in an actual battle." Kyani explained.
"So, it just sits here on this wall collecting dust?" Danny held it up to the light, this katana felt familiar somehow. And Kyani was right, this sword felt like it would float away if he wasn't holding it. It would be perfect for flying, there wouldn't be any drag. This would probably be a perfect weapon in the hands of a ghost. "Kyani, am I allowed to have this? If you don't use it, then there shouldn't be a problem with me having it." He turned around to face her, the sword still in his hand.
"I don't see a problem with it, but you should probably still ask Suki before you take it."
Just then the rest of the Kyoshi warriors walked in through the door. Kyani gestured towards Danny. "Suki this is Danny, and Danny this is Suki."
"Nice to meet you Danny." Suki said walking over to him, she looked down at his hands. "The Spirit Blade?"
"Oh, yes I was looking at it. I was wondering if I might be able to have it, I know of a fighting style that will be able to use a sword like this. It would be extremely useful to me." Danny explained.
"Hmm, that is a very sacred blade. Even if you are friends with the Avatar, we wouldn't just give it to someone we have never met before. You should be worthy to wield such a weapon" She crossed her arms.
Danny paused for a second. "I could try and prove myself." He suggested. Putting the blade carefully back on the wall behind him.
"How would you fight, with injuries such as your own?" She gestured to Danny's bandages that could be seen over his shoulder where the shirt he was wearing did not reach.
"I am not just a pretty face. I can fight." He smirked. He knew the burns were bad. But he had gone through much worse and still fought against much more powerful ghosts. This was just a human who didn't have any powers. From what his mom had taught him from her ghost self-defense classes, he was sure he could take her down with minimal effort and stress on his injuries.
Suki smiled back. "Alright then, let's see what you got." She got down into a fighting stance as the other warriors backed up a bit. Her fan was still on her hip and she was holding her hands out defensively.
Danny had a slightly smug smile on his face as he walked closer, also doing a defensive stance, signaling that she would need to make the first move. Suki smiled, this kid knew what he was doing.
She stepped forward quickly trying to reach for Danny's wrist. Danny quickly lifted his arm up and blocked her attack. And then ducked down under her leg as it swung over his head. Danny spun and quickly kicked her side lightly from one side, she reached down and grabbed Danny's ankle.
Danny smirked again as he flipped himself over, causing his leg to be freed from her grip as well as knocking her off balance. Danny swiped his other leg under hers, knocking her feet out from under her. Causing her to fall on her back on the ground.
Suki smiled, as Danny walked over and offered his hand to her. "You are a skilled fighter." She nodded her head down. "You can have the blade if you want, but use it wisely."
Danny nodded back "Thank you." He turned around to grab the katana again as well as a black sheath with green accents that was sitting next to where the sword was.
"What is the fighting style that would use such a light weapon?" Suki questioned with her hand on her cocked hip.
"You wouldn't know it, and it's not something you can really learn. It's hard to explain." Danny rubbed the back of his neck, hoping there would be no more questions about this topic.
"Well use it well, we should get to training. The others should be in town somewhere if you are looking for them."
"Thank you." Danny left the building with the katana attached to his waist.
x
Danny walks past Sokka who was walking back up the mountain muttering something angrily to himself, Danny decided to leave him alone. As he makes it into the small town he sees Aang and Katara talking next to a food stand. She then throws her hands in the air and grabs her food basket as Aang is dragged away by his shirt by a group of young girls. Katara stomped away fuming.
"Hey, Katara. What happened there?" Danny asked pointing his thumb in the direction Aang went.
"Ugh, Aang is letting all of this Avatar fame go to his head. He doesn't want to leave." She grumbled.
"I let fame go to my head once or twice. Believe me, that is not a mistake I want to make again. I understand, he will get over it. It'll just take a little bit." Danny tried to reassure her.
Katara walked in front of him and turned around, stopping them in the middle of the dirt road. "I know." She sighed. "But I am worried about him, he is just going to go off and do something stupid and get himself hurt."
"If you don't let him make mistakes he will never learn. And besides, we will be here if he needs us."
"You're right, but we still need to leave soon, we can't risk staying in one place too long." She turned around and started walking again. Danny walked next to her. "I am glad to see you are better, what happened?"
"I was just really weak, I was drained."
"And what about that." Katara asked, pointing towards the sword at Danny's side.
"Oh, this?" he pulled the katana out of its sheath showing it off to Katara. "It is something called the spirit blade; the Kyoshi warriors gave it to me."
"Really?" She narrowed her eyes a bit.
"It's not like I stole it." He raised his hand in surrender. "They weren't using it so they let me have it. And it is way too light to be used in a fight." Danny explained putting the sword away. They talked for a little longer until Katara spoke up again.
"Okay well, I am going back to our hut for a while. I will see you later." She waved walking down the road still holding her basket of food.
x
A while later Danny was walking back up the mountain to look for Kyani when he saw Sokka and Suki running down the mountain with a gray-haired man. Wait, was Sokka wearing a dress? "Danny! Come quick, there are fire benders at the shore." Sokka called out. Danny's eyes widened and he started following them.
The group hid behind the houses so they would not be seen by the invaders. They could hear Zuko call out. "Come out Avatar! You can't hide from me forever." They were riding what looked like a cross between a komodo dragon and a rhino.
They all climbed onto the roof of a house to get the jump on them. The Kyoshi warriors spread their fans and leaped off of the houses onto the backs of the rhinos, knocking most of the riders off of their saddles. Suki ran straight through and charged at Zuko. As she leaped into the air Zuko turned his creature around to knock her down with its whip-like tail.
Zuko readied his hand to blast her but Sokka jumped in the way using one of the fans to stop the fire from getting to her. He was about to try to shoot again when Danny jumped off the roof above them and knocked Zuko to the ground. "Miss me?" He quipped as Zuko tried to regain his balance.
Zuko threw a fire blast at him, catching one of the houses on fire behind him. Danny glared at Zuko and charged at him punching him in the chest. Zuko kicked him away causing him to fall to the floor. Danny was still definitely hurt, there was no denying it. he wasn't fit to fight like this, but he could still try. The fight with Suki was different, he could use a very minimal technique, whereas with Zuko he had to dodge the fire, he fought very differently than the Kyoshi warriors did. He spun his legs around knocking Zuko onto the ground again as Suki, Kyani, and Sokka surrounded him boxing him in.
Zuko glared up at them and suddenly spun his legs around shooting fire from his feet. The fire made a small blast that surrounded him and it knocked Kyani into the house that they were standing next to, while it knocked Sokka and Danny to the ground with a thud. Suki was thrown into a post and then fell to the ground knocked out.
Zuko jumps into the air and runs to the middle of the dirt road. "Nice try Avatar." He called out. "But these little girls won't save you!" He looked around for him waiting for him to come out.
"Hey!" Sokka tried to retort, but he was mostly breathless.
"Hey, over here!" Zuko turned around to see Aang holding his staff up towards him.
Zuko stepped forward and readied to fight. "Finally." He muttered. He shot multiple fire blasts at the Avatar who dogged them all easily, without flinching. Aang then spun his staff around, propelling him into the air to land next to the prince for a closer fight.
As Aang landed on the ground he turned into a roll grabbing two of the Warriors' fans that had fallen in the battle. He spun around creating a large wave of air and threw Zuko into a building wall. Aang quickly looked around and jumped into the air using his glider. He soared over all of the damage done to the village by the invaders with a sad look on his face. This was his fault and he knew it. He should have listened to Katara.
He spotted her helping a young girl get to safety and landed weightlessly next to her. "Look what I brought to this place." He sighed.
"Aang, it's not your fault."
"Yes, it is. These people got their town destroyed trying to protect me." Aang looked down to his feet.
Danny limped slightly over to them holding his side. "Then we should leave," Danny mentioned. "Zuko will try to follow us." Katara nodded and looked back to Aang. "I know it feels wrong to run but it might be the only way to help them."
Aang sighed deeply and turned around. "I'll call Appa."
Danny and Sokka split off to go help separately in the fight, Danny had just taken down a few more fire nation soldiers before he ran up to Aang and Katara. As Aang turned around to go and get Appa, Danny turned to see Kyani running up to them. "What do we do?"
"We are going to leave, the soldiers will follow us. We won't be able to help with the damage, but if we can get them out of here it will be safe." He paused. "Thank you for, you know, everything." He chuckled nervously.
"It was nice meeting you, Danny. And don't get hurt again." She jabbed her finger in his direction.
"You know that's not going to happen."
Kyani laughed.
Danny stuck his hand out and held it in a fist. "It's a fist bump." He smiled. She stuck her hand out and gave him a fist bump too and smiled back. Danny spun around to see the team climbing onto Appa to escape. He ran over waving behind him.
As soon as he jumped onto the bison Aang turned around. "Appa, yip yip." He called out. The bison took off into the air and started to fly away from the island.
Danny could hear Zuko command below him. "Get back to the ship, don't lose sight of them!" The soldiers started following Zuko's command and Danny breathed a sigh of relief. He looked up to see Katara lean over to Aang.
"I know it's hard, but you did the right thing." She tried to reassure him. "Zuko would have destroyed the whole place if we had stayed. They are going to be okay."
Aang turned away from her, paused for a second, and then dove off of Appa. Danny and Sokka's eyes widened in shock as they leaned over the saddle to see where Aang went. "What are you doing!"
Aang disappeared into the deep water of the lake, all was silent. A couple of seconds later there was a rumbling and water coming from the water and large bubbles started emerging. Suddenly the giant sea creature from before rose its head out of the water trying to throw Aang off its head. Aang pulled back on the serpent's head causing a stream of water to escape its mouth, a stream of water drenching the small village, smothering the many fires. He leaped into the air and landed back on the bison
As he climbed back onto the saddle Aang started. "I know I know, that was stupid and dangerous." He crossed his legs.
Danny slightly raised his eyebrow and Katara responded."Yes… it was," She leaned forward and hugged Aang, who had a huge smile on his face. Danny chuckled at the boy's reaction and started looking back out to sea with his hand on the katana at his side.
Authors notes
Lol, this chapter is so long. I hoped you enjoyed it. I was trying not to make the whole thing word for word. I would love to hear what you thought of it. Sorry if you had to wait long for this chapter.
Very special thanks to (Ao3) -TheLostPleiad. They betta read this chapter and gave me loads of ideas and feedback for changes to make this chapter 10 times better than it was before. They are so amazing. :D
Any questions you have I will try to answer in the next chapter. I love to read the reviews and they keep me going.