The Avatar State Part 2
I'M BAAACK!
So, I thought I would tell you now, and spare you the disappointment later on. I will not be including Zuko and Zhao's Agni Kai in the chapter. I'll have the moments leading up to the fight, and I'll have scene when Zuko wins, but I won't have scenes from the fight. Sorry to disappoint you.
Oh, second. ONLY FIVE REVIEWS? I mean, just having five when I've written so little is fine. But it would be nice to have more.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything except Tora.
Edit: New version! Changes in the chapter. Watch out for them. Some of them are kinda subtle, so you may not notice them, but they're there.
"So, a twelve year old boy bested you and your firebenders?" Zhao asked the prince snootily. Zuko was sitting with his arms crossed, and a bitter scowl on his face. "You're more pathetic than I thought you would be."
"I underestimated him." Zuko said in annoyance. "But it won't happen again."
"No, it will not. Because that was your last chance." The Commander said, crossing his arms and glaring at the Fire Prince.
"Commander Zhao, I have been hunting the Avatar for-" Zuko said, alarmed. He was cut off by Zhao, who spun around with flames exploding from his hands.
"For two years! And you've failed!" Zhao snarled, flames exploding from his hands in a flash. The flames extinguished as he relaxed and smirked. "Capturing the Avatar is too important to leave in a banished teenager's hands. He's mine now. And so is that girl." Zhao said smugly.
Zuko launched himself at the commander, looking murderous, but (unfortunately) was held back by two of the soldiers in the room. Zhao turned to leave, and said to the guards, "Keep them here." With that, he left the tent.
After he left, Iroh, who had been sitting quietly the whole time, waved his hand at a soldier, and calmly said, "More tea, please."
~~Water~~
We walked into the room. It was sort of dark inside, but there was a sort of natural light coming from the ceiling. There were statues of people lining the floor and up a slope that went all the way up to the ceiling, all running along a swirl pattern on the floor.
"Statues? Where's the meat? You promised me meat!" Sokka yelled.
"We didn't promise you anything, buddy boy."
"Who are all these people?" Katara asked, ignoring her brothers and my banter.
"I don't know, but I feel like I know them somehow." Aang said, as we all walked to the center of the room.
"Well, this is really freaking me out." I said, rubbing my arms that were covered up with my parka. Despite the warm air in the room, I had goose bumps riding up my arms.
"Look! An airbender!" Aang suddenly said, pointing to a statue of a woman in Air Nomad clothes.
"This is a waterbender." Katara said, pointing to another one. "It's a pattern - Air, Water, Earth, and Fire."
"Isn't that the Avatar cycle?" I asked, not taking my eyes off an earthbender female. She had a braid down one side of her face with feathers in the hair tie, with a long strand down the other side. She had a cocky smile on her face.
"That's it!" Katara exclaimed, making me jump. "These are all the Avatars! That's how you know them, Aang. They're your past lives!"
"Wow. There are so many!" Aang said in amazement.
"Well, how long has the Avatar been around?" I asked, stepping away from the Earth Kingdom Avatar.
Aang's face showed fierce concentration, so I shook my head and told him it was a question that I didn't need the answer for.
"Past lives? Katara, please don't tell me you actually believe in those old legends." Sokka scoffed, always the skeptical.
"It's true! When the Avatar dies, he's reincarnated into the next cycle!" Katara exclaimed. I glanced over at Aang, and saw he was staring at a Fire Nation Avatar with a dazed look on his face, like he was in a trance.
"Aang, snap out of it." I said, snapping my fingers in front of his face.
"Huh?"
"Who's he?" Katara asked, coming over to us.
"That's Avatar Roku. He was the Avatar before me." Aang said. I examined the statue carefully. It was of an old man, with a neatly trimmed beard and a topknot held in place by a flame-styled, almost crown looking hair piece. He wore long flowing robes, enough to look impressive, but not arrogant.
"Oh, yeah! I've heard of him!" I exclaimed, grinning. My father had a wide variety of books in his library. There was one about the Avatar. There wasn't that much in it about Avatar Roku, though. I wasn't sure why.
"You were Fire Nation? No wonder I didn't trust you when we first met." Sokka said in realization. I smacked his shoulder, and in response he stuck his tongue out at me.
"There's no writing. How do you know his name?" Katara asked.
"I'm not sure… I just know it somehow." Aang said in confusion.
"I get it." I said, snapping my fingers again in realization. Everyone looked at me. "Like Katara said, all these people are your past lives. I'm sure if you concentrated enough, you could name every person in this room." Aang's face suddenly screwed up in concentration, and sweat started beading at his forehead. "That wasn't a challenge."
There was suddenly a sound behind us. A long shadow appeared in the doorway, and we all quickly ducked behind the statues and grew quiet.
"Firebender! Nobody say anything!" Sokka hissed, pulling out his club. I cursed myself for leaving my sword with Appa. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
"You're saying something!" Katara and I both whisper-yelled at him, and we got shushed by the boys.
"The firebender won't know what hit him!" Sokka whispered.
"How do you know it's a boy?" I whispered back. Sokka ignored me, and after a few seconds of waiting, he shot out from behind the statue, club in hand, and suddenly stopped. I peered out from behind the statue, and stared at the intruder.
It was one of the most adorable things I had ever seen. It looked like a cross between some sort of rabbit-monkey and a fox-squirrel. It was white, and had a brown stomach, and long pointy ears.
"Lemur!" Aang exclaimed in joy.
"Dinner!" Sokka said, with drool coming out of the corner of his mouth.
"Don't listen to him. You're gonna be my new pet!" Aang said, stepping out from the statue.
"Not if I get him first!" Sokka yelled, and they both shot out of the room, chasing the lemur.
Katara and I exchanged looks, rolled our eyes in sync, and went back to looking at the statues. We both could hear the crashes and the calls of "Come back! I want to eat you!" Ringing through the hallway.
~~Water~~
"My search party is ready. " Zhao said, coming back from whatever it was he had been doing outside of the tent. Zuko's eyes instantly snapped from the red carpet to Zhao's glaring face. "Once I've set out, my soldiers will escort you back to your ship. You'll be free to go. You can do anything you want – except, of course, try and find the Avatar."
"Why? Are you worried that I'll catch him before you?" Zuko snapped, glaring at him.
Zhao laughed cruelly. "You, capture him before me? That's impossible."
Zuko stood up angrily. "Don't underestimate me, Zhao. I will capture the Avatar before you do."
Iroh stood up as well, trying to stop his nephew from doing something stupid. "Prince Zuko, that's enough!"
Zhao sneered. "You can't compete with me. I have hundreds of warships under my command, and you... you're just a banished prince. No home. No allies. Your own father doesn't even want you."
That was one sentence too many.
"You're wrong!" Zuko yelled. "As soon as I capture the Avatar, my father will give my honor back, and he will give me back my place on the throne!"
Zhao scoffed. "If your father really wanted you home, he'd have let you return by now, whether you had the Avatar or not. To him, you're a failure. A disgrace to our Nation."
"That's not true." Zuko said, narrowing his eyes. It's not true. It's not. It can't be true. It isn't.
Zhao smirked cruelly. "You have the scar to prove it."
Zuko let out a furious yell and shot towards Zhao, getting in his face and yelling that maybe Zhao would like to get one to match his. Zhao sneered and asked if that had been a challenge.
"An Agni Kai. At sunset." Zuko hissed.
"Very well. Too bad your father won't be here to watch you humiliate yourself. His brother will do, though." Zhao turned and walked out of the tent.
"Prince Zuko, have you forgotten what happened last time you dueled a master?" Iroh asked in horror, immensely concerned for his nephew.
"I will never forget." Zuko said quietly. He couldn't. Never in a million years would he ever forget.
~~Water~~
I was looking at an Air Nomad Avatar, and Katara was inspecting Roku again.
Then, all of a sudden, Roku's statues eyes started glowing. Then, the Avatar before Roku's eyes started glowing. Then all the statues eyes started glowing, running backwards the cycle until the room was filled with the glowing lights.
"What's going on?" I asked, a little worried.
Katara shrugged, before suddenly gasping, and running out of the room. "Where are you going?" I yelled after her.
"Aang!"
Understanding, I ran after her.
~~Water~~
Earth Kingdom
In the Earth Kingdom Avatar Temple, instead of statues, they had a mosaic portraying the Avatar, showing four of the Avatar's around a woman, who was said to be the first Earthbender. (A cookie for you if you can guess who the woman is!) The Earth Kingdom Sage leaned back in shock, his eyes widening in disbelief.
Northern Water Tribe
Two Water Tribe sages were standing outside the Water Tribe Avatar Temple, watching in a mixture of shock and amazement. The large poleon top of the temple was glowing luminescent blue, and the light was shooting up into the heavens.
Fire Nation
"Send word to the Fire Lord." The head Fire Sage ordered another sage. The room in front of him was filled with a golden light. "The Avatar has returned!"
~~Water~~
Katara and I ran toward where the most destruction seemed to be coming from. We ran into what seemed like a courtyard, and what we saw made me gasp in horror as the hurricane like wind whipped at my face and attacked my hair, pulling it out of my loose braid, sending it blowing all around my head.
Aang was levitating in the sky, air pulled into a sphere around him. His eyes and tattoos were glowing white, like the statue's eyes. His face was contorted with rage and fury, and his fists were clenched. The wind was getting stronger every second, and it probably wouldn't be much longer before he blew us all off the mountain.
"WHAT'S GOING ON?" I yelled at Sokka. The siblings were hiding behind a rock, while I just stood there, frozen in horror, completely exposed to Aang.
"He found Gyatso's skeleton! Fire Nation armour around it!" Sokka yelled back.
Oh, Spirits.
Aang suddenly turned toward us, and his eyes locked on me. "FIREBENDER! FIRE NATION! YOU DID THIS!" He yelled, his voice magnified a thousand times. The wind picked up even more, and I had no doubt that if he wasn't stopped, Aang would cause a tornado.
Aang slowly lifted his hand, and a huge blast of air shot toward me. I raised my hand, trying to defend myself, but it was in vain. The air hit me, and I got sent flying backward, slamming into a rock wall. And my world went black.
~~Water~~
"TORA!" Katara screamed, her voice lost in the wind as her friend went flying through the air, slammed into the wall, and crumpled to the ground unconscious. She turned to Sokka. "I'm gonna try and calm him down!"
"Well, hurry up before he blows us off the mountain!" Sokka yelled back. Katara turned to face Aang, and winced when she saw his furious expression. Nonetheless, she ran to Tora and shielded her from the Avatar, who was still advancing on the unconscious girl.
~~Water~~
Meanwhile, a few hundred miles away, Zuko stood triumphantly, his fist pointed at Zhao, who was lying on the ground glaring up at him.
The only thought in his mind was the odd realization that he had won. Against Zhao, one of the best firebenders in the Nation.
"What are you waiting for?! Do it!" Zhao yelled at him.
Zuko hesitated for a second, before shooting a blast of fire.
Close to Zhao. He hadn't harmed Zhao in any way.
"That's it?" Zhao asked in disgust. "Your father raised a coward."
"Next time you get in my way, I won't hold back." Zuko spat, and he turned around to walk away.
Behind him, Zhao gave a howl of outrage and unleashed a whip of fire toward Zuko. The flame shot toward Zuko's back, before Iroh placed a hand over Zhao's foot, where the fire had come from. Zuko spun around to see his uncle holding Zhao's foot, and they all stood in silence, before Iroh shoved Zhao backwards into the dirt with hardly any effort. Zuko started forward in fury, but Iroh placed a hand in front of him.
"No, Prince Zuko. You will only taint your victory." His eyes travelled back to Zhao. "So this is how a Commander acts when defeated? Disgraceful. Even in exile, my nephew is more honorable than you." Zuko glanced at his uncle in surprise. "Thank you for the tea. It was very well brewed."
They walked out of the arena, and once outside, Zuko glanced at his uncle again.
"Did you really mean that, Uncle?"
"Of course. I told you , ginseng tea is my favourite."
~~Water~~
"Aang! I know you're upset…" Katara swallowed, before she started yelling again. "I know how hard it is to lose the people you care about! I went through the same thing when I lost my mom. Tora lost her mother too! And she's from the Fire Nation! Gyatso and your people and family may be gone, but you still have a family! Sokka, Tora, and I, we're your family now!" Katara yelled at the Avatar.
After a moment Aang slowly started to float back down to the ground when she had finished, and landed on both feet. The wind slowly started dying, until there was just a faint breeze.
"None of us are going to let anything happen to you. Promise." Sokka said gently. Katara reached out at him from her place on the ground and took Aang's hand, watching as the glow in his eyes and tattoos faded away. Aang suddenly collapsed into Katara, exhausted.
"I'm sorry." Aang said softly.
"It's okay. It wasn't your fault." Katara said kindly. Aang glanced at Tora, who was still spread out on the ground unconscious, and moaned.
"Tora's hurt because of me." Aang said sadly. Katara glanced over at Sokka, who was checking Tora to make sure she was okay. "And you were right. If the firebenders found this temple, that means they found the other ones too. I really am the last airbender."
"GAH!" Tora suddenly shot up, and promptly grabbed her head, holding it in pain. "OW! Jeez! What in Agni's name happened?"
Aang glanced at the ground guiltily, Tora looked at him, and she suddenly remembered what happened.
"I'm so sorry Tora." Aang said honestly. Tora smiled at him, but winced again as she rubbed her head.
"It's fine. I'm alright. I'm alive, aren't I? It wasn't your fault anyway." She said, taking his hand and squeezing it gently.
Aang gave her a small smile, and asked her what Sokka did to wake her up. She grimaced.
"He used one of his socks! Do you know how much they smell?"
"Hey, you're talking to someone who had to wash his socks for years!" Katara rolled her eyes in exasperation.
Aang gave a small laugh when Sokka gave a cry of indignation. But he still felt guilty, and he still felt a small empty hole inside of him where the airbenders had once been.
"OH SPIRITS I'M BLEEDING!" Tora suddenly shrieked as she pulled her hand away from her head and showed it to Katara, flailing it around wildly in panic. "KATARA LOOK AT IT! I'M BLEEDING! OW!" She yelled again as another stab of pain hit her.
Katara sighed, a little amused at her friends panic, and checked the back of Tora's head, inspecting it carefully. Without a word (she didn't want to make her friend panic any more than she had to) she pulled a small cloth out from her pocket and held it to Tora's head. "It'll be fine. It's just a minor injury. You just need to keep this in place for a while, okay?"
Tora nodded, the panic fading from her eyes.
Sokka suddenly snickered. "Someone from the Fire Nation who's afraid of blood? OW!" He yelled as Tora punched him as hard as she could in the shoulder.
~~Water~~
Later, they were all packed up and ready to leave. Katara started to walk into the air temple sanctuary, where Aang was, but Tora told her she would do it. She had recovered from her minor injury, but her fingers kept drifting back to her skull to check if it was bleeding.
Tora POV
I walked into the sanctuary, and found Aang staring at Roku's statue. I put a hand on his shoulder. "Ready to go?"
He didn't move. "How's Avatar Roku supposed to help me now? He's just a statue now." He asked me.
I shrugged. "Maybe something 'magical' will happen so you can talk to him." At the word magical, I did air quotes with my fingers and finished with a fancy flourish, imitating making magic.
He laughed. I grinned, and took his arm. We heard a noise behind us, and turned around to see the lemur in the doorway. As we came out of the sanctuary, we saw the lemur from earlier run over to Sokka, place a handful of fruits and nuts in front of him, ran away, and Sokka hunch down and start to stuff his face.
"Looks like someone likes you, Sokka." Aang commented.
"Can't talk! Must eat!" I rolled my eyes and told him not to talk with his mouth full. The lemur suddenly came back and scrambled up Aang's body to perch on his head.
"Hey, little guy." Aang said to it. I scratched its ears, making it purr. "He likes you."
A few minutes later, Aang was standing with Appa and the lemur, looking at the air temple. He spoke to them both for a moment, before turning back to us, beaming. "Katara, Tora, Sokka," He turned back to us. "Meet the newest member of our family."
"What are you gonna call him?" Katara asked. The lemur jumped off Aang and scurried over to Sokka, grabbed the peach from his hand, and ran back to Aang.
"Momo." Aang answered. Sokka still had his mouth ready to take a bite, and I laughed.
"It fits him." I stated.
As we flew away from the air temple, I noticed Aang watching it disappear beyond the horizon. I crawled over to him. "They're still with you, you know."
He looked at me.
"They're still here, in your heart." I said, pointing to his chest. "And no matter what, they will always be there."
Aang stared at me, before suddenly wrapping his arms around me and giving me a hug. I blinked in surprise, before patting his back and hugging him back.
Minutes later, I stared over the side of the saddle, thinking about mom. If I couldn't remember her at all, did that mean she was still with me? I touched my necklace.
Maybe she was.
Episode three is over.
Edit: So how'd you guys like this new version? I liked it better than the old version – and I'm not just saying that because the old version could help in getting the story deleted.
Also, you guys – don't worry. If this story is deleted (and I'm working hard to make sure it isn't) I'll change some things around and repost it. So don't you guys worry, alright?
So my plan is to work on a chapter a day. First I'll work on this story, and then I'll move onto my other stories – but I'm going to work on working on both stories very fast.