Chapter Nine: Going Under
If there was anything Aang disliked, it was tight spaces. Was he claustrophobic? No, of course not. But he was an Air Nomad, and though he'd grown up in a plain room with a hard bed, small, enclosed areas still made him uncomfortable. Where was the space to run around? To spread his legs? To fly? To breathe? To get away from it all for a little while? Monk Gyatso had had a saying: "No adventure ever begins in a small room." Given that he'd been on many an adventure that had started in a small room, Aang was unsure of that statement's validity but nevertheless appreciated the spirit.
Curled up in a ball in the corner, Aang mulled over all one-hundred-and-seventeen-years of his life. That century in the iceberg didn't really count, but between his twelve years before the freeze and his five years after the thaw, he'd amassed quite the mental library. The airbender could, at a moment's notice, pull any volume off a shelf and find an answer to most of life's problems. So why was it, then, as he rocked back and forth, his knees tucked to his chest, that Aang felt pangs of claustrophobia and wave after wave of dread and despair?
Below deck was no place to be. It was tight and cramped, and Aang hated knowing that in a few short minutes he would be tasked with some intensive waterbending. Had the seas at zero, zero not been full of coral reefs, they might have been able to go down in a submarine—which would still need waterbending to work, but it would be less nerve-wracking for him, knowing that he wasn't the only thing between them and drowning. But the sub had been ruled out, and here they were in a dinky little Water Tribe skiff, not even enough room to fit all five of them on deck at one time.
"Land, ho!" rumbled Sokka, his voice penetrating the wooden floorboards and canvas. "Aang, get your butt up here!"
Grumbling, but also excitedly nervous, the airbender picked himself up and climbed the short ladder to the top decks, emerging from the dark, shaded interior of the boat. Looming before the vessel was a cliff shooting straight up into the sky, with the sea lapping at a small beach at its base. Everyone braced themselves as Sokka carefully maneuvered the boat to gently run aground, coming to a stop in the shallows. The group disembarked and reconvened on the sand, as Appa, who had spent the whole journey south lazily floating behind them, landed nearby in a cloud of dust.
"Directly ahead is point zero, zero," Zuko said, stretching an arm over the ocean. "Where the equator and prime meridian intersect."
"The prime what-now?" Toph wondered.
"It's a line on the map going north to south, from Pole to Pole. The equator is actually important, because it's the planet's widest point, where the planet spins slightly faster and temperatures are the warmest. It intersects with the Si Wong Desert and the Ryoku Archipelago, after all. But the prime meridian is just a line on the map, drawn arbitrarily through the Royal Observatory in Yu Dao."
Sokka blinked. "You sure got some fancy book learnin' as a kid, didn't you?"
"Yes, and also I spent three years of my life at sea. I know the rules of the waves," the firebender added.
"I just never paid attention during my classes," Toph remarked.
"Okay, well… Aang? Are you ready for this?" Sokka asked.
The airbender took a shaky breath, then said, "Ready."
He stepped in front of the rest of them and tried to drain everything from his mind, as Suki had told him. He'd had some luck the other night doing that, but his waterbending had not been flawless. He'd need to be perfect now, though. Aang steadied himself, pressing his knuckles together, then sliced his hand skyward. The ocean before him jumped into the air, splitting in twain. He then spread his arms open wide, and the seas parted with them. Aang directed Toph and Zuko to go first and for Sokka and Suki to follow, with himself in the middle. He held back the waves as they walked forward until he could hold them back no more, instead reshaping their dry patch into a big bubble. A small whirlpool at the top funneled air down from the surface, ensuring they wouldn't suffocate.
Aang felt his feet sink into the wet sand as they traversed the ocean floor. His brow was slick with sweat as the airbender concentrated hard on keeping the water above them and not on them. Soon enough, he'd gotten into enough of a rhythm that he felt comfortable engaging in conversation, though his voice was strained and his attention divided.
"This is so cool," Sokka mumbled, watching a pod of dolphins dart overhead.
"I can barely see," Toph complained. "Wet sand isn't exactly an ideal medium to sense vibrations through."
"You're—ack—fine, Toph," Aang grunted. He felt the water slipping from his control as his brain pivoted towards worrying about Katara, and he abruptly came to a halt.
"You good, man?" Zuko asked.
"Let him concentrate," ordered Suki. "Can't you use the Avatar State?"
Aang grunted in reply, "No… don't want to be tired for… urgh… big fight." He stood there a few moments longer, gathering himself, before nodding, "I'm alright to go on."
Team Avatar suddenly found themselves amongst a bright and colorful underwater forest, one built of coral and inhabited by innumerable tropical fish. It was a truly magical sight, creatures every tint and shade of the rainbow flitting about like birds darting through treetops. One particularly curious flounder got too close to their bubble and fell inside, flopping pathetically on the ground until Sokka picked it up and tossed it back in the water. As they came out of the reef, the ground slanted downwards sharply to an almost forty-five degree angle. Everyone struggled to keep their footing as the hill only got steeper and steeper, until it was nearly impossible to stand.
"What's that?" Zuko wondered, pointing into the crevasse before them.
Aang squinted, but he couldn't make out much due to the ocean's murkiness. All that was there was a light, seemingly covering the entire bottom of the trench, though Aang reasoned that that was just the water playing tricks on him.
"Towards the spooky light at the bottom of an undersea canyon, or away?" Sokka debated, weighting both options in his hands. "I'd say away."
Suki rolled her eyes. "You're the one who also said Aegium would be at the bottom of the sea. This is our best bet so far."
"I know, but… I was kinda hoping the city would be a little closer to the surface? Like, I might be from the Water Tribe, but that doesn't mean I like water enough to be crushed to death by its pressure."
"We'll be good, Sokka," reassured Aang. "I've got the pressure thing taken care of."
"Are we going or not, numbnuts?" shouted Toph.
"We're going, we'll just… need another way around."
It had gotten so dark that Zuko lit a fireball in his hand, casting a pale orange glow over the group while they edged their way around the abyss. Anytime Aang felt his emotions welling up, he focused intently on his breathing, sucking in through his nose and blowing out through his mouth. It was hard, especially as the prospect of finding Katara seemed to become more and more likely, but he managed to stay calm. He didn't meditate for nothing.
When Team Avatar reached the stone mountain sticking out of the sand, they felt they'd reached a dead end. Then Toph stuck her hand out through the sea and placed it on the rock, and she stated, "It's hollow. Or at least, part of it is. Back up, kiddies."
The earthbender plunged her foot into the sand beneath her and twisted, instantly hardening it into a flat, stable surface. She bent her knees, striking a readied stance, then punched down, a rectangle of stone moving with her. Peering inside, Aang saw a new passageway had opened up, connected to another dimly-lit corridor in the distance. He funneled the water out of the entryway and let everyone else go in first before stepping inside, Toph slamming the wall shut behind him.
"Oh Spirits, that was brutal," he gasped, hardly able to stand.
"You did good, man," Sokka said, slapping Aang on the back and knocking the wind out of him.
"You did great," added Suki reassuringly.
He just nodded, panting.
"I guess we go down," Zuko assumed when they neared the end of the tunnel, looking up and down where Toph's passage intersected with an old staircase.
Down, down, down they went. The staircase spiraled so tightly that Aang felt dizzy, and the stone became slick with moss and condensation. The airbender, with nothing better to do, embarked on a mission to mentally prepare him for what he hoped was coming—though the detailed, ancient carvings in the walls only supported that hope. It had been two long, long weeks since Katara had been kidnapped. It had not been fun. In fact, it had been unbearable. The only time in his life that he had felt even somewhat similarly to how he felt now was when Appa had been stolen by those sandbenders during the war. But for as much as he loved Appa, he adored Katara, from head to toe to the depths of her soul. He would move heaven and earth for her, if that's what it took. Aang shook his head, the worry in his gut rearing its ugly head once more.
"Do you think this could really be the Lost City of Aegium?" breathed Sokka excitedly.
"We certainly are going deep underground," Toph answered.
"I just want to see her again," Aang mumbled.
"There's light up ahead," a bewildered Zuko remarked. "Natural light."
Sure enough, there was a light emanating from below. When the stairs bottomed out, Team Avatar came upon a slab of rock pretending to be a door, with bright, white, natural glow exploding from underneath. Toph immediately slammed her foot into it, bursting the stone to misshapen pieces. Aang peered inside the mysterious room, shocked at what he saw. It was a very old place, constructed of the same tannish-gray stone as the stairs, with accents and highlights in eye-popping blues spattered across the walls and floors and ceiling. A great bronze brazier stood in the middle, lukewarm and sputtering coals still smoking inside. But the far wall was hardly a wall at all, more like columns interspersed between windows, offering a breathtaking view of an ancient city. Aang had only ever seen something like it once before, when he and Zuko had encountered the ruins of the Sun Warriors' civilization, though this place was much better taken care of. The silent metropolis looked just as it had on the mural in Agna Qel'a, just… not on the seashore. Looking up might have been more impressive, because there was no sky, only water. The Avatar could feel a strong pull inside him towards a handful of towers positioned strategically around the skyline, which seemed to be expelling powerful bending energy, and he surmised they were what was holding the ocean over their heads. A whale drifted by, and Sokka almost fainted.
"It's… it's… so beautiful!" he sobbed, tears welling up in his eyes.
"The city exists. But are the Raiders here?" frowned Zuko.
Suki pointed out the window to the left, admitting, "I'd say they are."
Aang followed her finger and gasped at the abomination a short distance away. The city was divided up into three distinct sections, each separated by a circular canal and connected by a series of bridges and aqueducts. The stairs had spat them out in the furthest ring from the middle of the city, where it seemed most of the residential buildings were. The second ring featured a spectacular temple dedicated to the moon, given that the images of Tui and La were upon it, but the center housed an absolutely titanic structure, carved from solid marble and detailed in gold and lapis lazuli. It was fifteen stories tall, as high as the walls of Ba Sing Se, with masterfully carved pillars surrounding an interior cube of brilliant white. At the top, the roof peaked in a triangular shape, with depictions of spirits and heroes embedded in the edifice, though that which dominated the design was the upper half of a young woman in a toga, her hair pulled back in a bun and her arms spread wide, tongues of water touching her fingertips. Above her left shoulder was a spear, and over her right was an olive branch—war and peace. But, all was not well with the beautiful piece of architecture, for the upper half of the entire building had been defaced by sheets of metal and billowing black smokestacks, as if the upper floors had been torn out and remade. The telltale sign of Fire Nation, and, in this case, Raider, tampering.
Without saying a word, Aang jumped out the window.
/ / | \ \
"Shit!" Sokka yelped, watching the airbender plummet, before catching himself on a pillow of air and taking off running for the center ring. His head spinning like a top, the tribesman pointed to the other side of the room and yelled, "Stairs!"
Suki, Toph, Zuko, and he raced down the staircase, which wrapped around the outside of the building and deposited them at street level. They moved fast, but Aang was faster, hopping from rooftop to rooftop until he popped open his glider and soared off. Sokka and his friends sped up, their feet flying over the pavement. In the distance, there was the sound of an explosion, and flames thirty feet high rose over the buildings as a commotion exploded on the center island. Aang had landed.
The four remaining members of Team Avatar made it to one of the bridges leading to the middle, where they were met with the group of assorted Raiders and Fire Nation veterans guarding it. Sokka moved first, unsheathing his sword and slicing it across one enemy's calf before slamming the hilt into another Raider's gut. Suki flipped past him, smacking a soldier across the face with her metal fans and hitting another in the groin with a well-placed kick. Then came Toph and Zuko.
"Death to the traitor!" the still-standing Raiders and soldiers screamed upon seeing the Fire Lord.
Toph gathered her hands and jabbed them up, making the rock beneath the feet of a trio of soldiers explode and launch them into the water. Zuko then finished off the last of them, setting their clothes on fire and letting them jump into the canal on their own volition. It was quick work, but Aang and the white marble pillars were still far, far away.
The four of them rushed ahead, blasting their way through whatever Raiders were unfortunate enough to cross their path, but the sounds of a true battle were around the corner. The fountain in the plaza of the middle island was something Sokka would have loved to stop and admire if it hadn't been the centerpiece of what was left of a battlefield. Aang had entered the Avatar State and hovered over the destruction, all four elements orbiting around him. Scattered across the square were two dozen firebenders, unconscious and beaten down. Sokka grimaced when he saw the bone sticking out of one poor fellow's forearm, but that feeling of pity and disgust quickly mutated into worry when he finally noticed Aang was holding someone in his bubble of elemental chaos. His hand was wrapped around the neck of a Southern Raider, his helmet split open, his armor in tatters. The Raider gasped for breath.
"Where is she?" Aang thundered.
"Can't… breathe…" the young man coughed.
"Where is she? Where is Katara?"
Still struggling, the Raider managed to point up. Aang threw him to the ground and ascended at breakneck speeds, ignoring his friends' pleas to just slow down and wait for them. Sokka ordered them inside the building, to look for a way to the top. The interior wound up being a massive, open chamber. Two staircases flanked the entrance, leading to a balcony a few floors above, which they instantly began climbing. As they went, Sokka felt his vision drawn to the statue in the middle of the room. It was an enormous model of the same woman who was on the front of the building, contorted into a graceful pose balanced on one toe, a boomerang in one hand and the other held like she was bending something. The woman was beautiful and obviously from one of the Water Tribes, given her dark features, but she was clad in the strange garb of a toga and a curved war-helmet with a plume topping it. Sokka assumed it must have been what they wore eons ago.
A few more flights of stairs later, and Team Avatar exploded onto the roof.
"Where's Aang?" Zuko huffed.
"Where's Katara?" Sokka added.
"Watch out!" screeched Toph, chucking a boulder past them and into a row of advancing Raiders.
Unlike the interior of the building, the roof was swarming with firebenders, something they were discovering just now. They poured from around every corner, appearing as if from nowhere. Team Avatar didn't even give them a chance. They ripped through their lines, throwing fire and earth and fans and boomerangs, incapacitating as many as possible. And hey, if they got a little brain damaged, so what? They were already insane to be siding with the Southern Raiders and their mysterious Admiral. Another good bump on the noggin wouldn't be terrible.
"Where is my sister? Where is she?" rumbled Sokka, striking down an opponent with the flat of his blade.
The four of them rounded a bend, and came to a sudden halt. A few yards away, Aang was still, though the four elements still roared around him. Sokka couldn't make out what he was doing until he looked around the airbender, and the tribesman dropped his sword at what he saw. A figure wearing a modified uniform of a Fire Navy admiral stood calmly at the roof's ledge, their helmet's visor drawn shut. But that wasn't the part Sokka was fixated on. No, his attention and worry and anger and fright was directed entirely at Katara, who was on her knees next to the Admiral, her hands and feet held within metal casts, her head in a steel brace, her mouth gagged, her arms and legs chained together. She seemed to have given up in struggling, and her pleading blue eyes betrayed desperation. The Admiral's hand was at the waterbender's temple, and in their other palm danced a raging inferno. The message was clear: one wrong move, and Katara's head would be a greasemark.
"Let her go," Aang said shakily, pain inflicting his voice.
"Turn off the Avatar State," responded the Admiral plainly, their voice reverberating in their helmet and entirely unidentifiable. "Then we'll talk."
Reluctantly, Aang dispelled his fire, earth, water, and air, his tattoos and eyes dimming to their normal colors. Sokka moved towards him, but the Admiral raised their hand, touting poisonously, "Ah, ah, ah, you stay back, boy. It's just me and the Avatar talking now. Unless you want your sister's brains deep-fried."
Sokka snarled, but Suki held him back, whispering in his ear, "It's not worth it."
"Hold on just one minute," interrupted Zuko, pointing at the officer. "You can try to hide it behind the tinny echo in that helmet, but I'd recognize that voice anywhere—Azula."
The Admiral hesitated, then, with a fluid motion, plucked the helm from their skull, revealing a face everyone in attendance knew all too well. The Princess of the Fire Nation stood proud, her long hair as black as midnight unfurling behind her like a flag on a mast, her arched cheekbones and golden eyes reminding Sokka all too much of Zuko's mother. "Took you long enough, Zuzu. I was beginning to worry for your mental state."
"My mental state? I haven't seen you in years! No one has! We declared you officially dead six months ago!" he shouted. "And what the fuck are you doing here, playing dress-up with the Raiders? If this is about taking back the throne—"
"Brother dearest, you've had half a decade to be Fire Lord and you're still thinking this small? I pity your people," Azula drawled through a veneer of mock worry. "I don't want to be Fire Lord. I don't even want to be Phoenix King, though the Raiders insist on calling me so. That's all in the past."
"Then what do you want?" Aang demanded, hands curling into fists. "To torture us all just a little more?"
"No, Avatar," Azula intoned. "I. Want. You. Or, more accurately, your help."
The airbender was taken aback. "My help? I would never help someone like you!"
The Princess grinned venomously. "Let me rephrase that, since I know you're just a simple monk: I don't want your help. No, that's too shortsighted. I've spent years working to get to this very spot, years tearing through books for information on the ancient civilizations and the Avatar, years amassing loyal followers, years formulating and concocting this plan. And all the pieces fell in place oh so easily. So no, Zuko, I don't want to be Fire Lord, or Phoenix King. I want to serve myself. I want to reunite this dead empire. And I will have not the help of the Avatar, but the power of the Avatar."
Sokka's eyes widened. "You want him—"
"—As my secret weapon. What do you say, nomad? There is much we could accomplish together. And you could be with the woman you love," Azula uttered, before lighting up her hand close to Katara's face with a dull glow. "So, speak now, or forever hold your peace."
Aang was frozen. The entire roof had come to complete silence, but Sokka could hear his breath quicken. The airbender looked at Katara, then at Azula, then over his shoulder at his friends. "I don't… I can't… I…"
The Avatar was put in an impossible position. It was a worst case scenario, something Sokka still had nightmares about: abandoning his friends and his worldly duties, or saving the love of his life. The tribesman could see the pure fear in his best friend's eyes as they locked gazes once more. Aang hung his head, and for a moment, Sokka thought he was turning his back on Katara, and felt simultaneous rushes of anger and anguish. But then, the airbender spoke.
"I… I'm sorry, Sokka," he said in a small voice. "I must… I have to protect her."
Katara jerked wildly in her bonds, no doubt screaming for Aang to reconsider, because her life was not worth the prospect of the Avatar's sheer power in the hands of the unjust. But he would not, he insisted, as a tear rolled down his cheek.
"Excellent," Azula smoothly interjected, "now, bring those four down. We can have no more interruptions if we're going to conquer the world."
Sniffling, Aang mumbled, "You'd better leave."
Sokka barged ahead, exclaiming, "Like hell we will!"
He scowled. "I said, LEAVE!"
The tribesman kept on coming, but Aang pulled a hunk of marble from the floor and threw it at him. Then the Avatar advanced. Sokka suddenly realized he wasn't messing around. He was dead serious. Sokka had seen Aang in battle as a fully-fledged Avatar, and every time had silently thanked his lucky stars that he was on the right side of the fight. But apparently, today he was not. Stumbling back a few paces, he tugged on Suki's hand, yelling, "Run!"
The four remaining members of Team Avatar ran. They slammed through a line of spellbound Raiders and tumbled down the stairs, Aang hot on their heels and encapsulated in the unstoppable Avatar State. The staircase creaked and shook as Aang tried to rip it from its foundations and Toph made the marble grow around his hands and feet, trapping them. "I thought you were different, Twinkletoes!" she cried, holding steady as the others flew past her.
"You don't understand. You can never understand," the thousand voices of the Avatar proclaimed in unison.
Unable to hold him back any longer, Toph let go and leapt over the side of the stairs just as they shattered like thin ice on a freezing lake. She plummeted a dozen yards before Zuko caught her at the ground floor with an almighty grunt and they sprinted away together. Sokka stuck his head back through the entrance to see what was going on, only to witness Aang flying towards him at high velocity. The warrior threw up his arms, bracing for the worst, only for the Fire Lord to come to his aid by erecting a barrier of livid flames in the doorway, stopping the Avatar for just enough time to get away.
Through the city streets they went, ducking from building to building, trying to lose Aang and the amassing group of Raiders and firebenders trailing them. They crossed one bridge, then scrambled across an aqueduct, and then they found themselves back in the tower they'd entered through. As the airbender paused in midair, he began volleying projectiles at Team Avatar while they ascended the outside of the tower. Zuko and Toph put up whatever defense they could, but it seemed futile. Sokka whipped out his boomerang and chucked it, watching as it curved through the sky, headed straight for the back of the occupied Aang's head. The impact never came. Just before collision the Avatar reached out behind him and snapped the boomerang out of the air, gripping it tightly as it melted away at his touch into molten liquid.
"Boomy…" gulped Sokka, dumbfounded.
The quartet dashed through the room with the brazier and climbed the spiral staircase, their feet slipping on the damp stone. Aang hadn't followed them, but they were still terrified, reaching the top in mere minutes. Sokka, Suki, Zuko, and Toph burst out into the sunlight and gulped in breaths of sticky, salty oxygen. The sound of distant waves crashing filled their ears, echoing through the mouth of the cave they just exited. The bellowing roar of a sky bison rang out from somewhere far below, and Sokka abruptly realized they were back where they'd started, just a few hundred feet higher.
"It's the cliff! It's Appa!" cheered Toph, pumping her fists.
Sokka raced to the edge and shouted down to the beach, "Here boy! Up here!"
Appa looked up, Momo nestled comfortably on his head. When he saw the tribesman, the bison grinned toothily and slapped his tail into the sand, rocketing to the clouds.
"Oh man, I've never been happier to see you!" laughed Sokka, as Appa drifted closer.
"Stop!"
The sky bison twirled, having heard the voice of his best friend. Sokka felt his blood turn ice-cold when he saw Aang hanging there, cloaked in a sphere of wind. "Come to me, Appa."
The beast didn't move, looking from the airbender to the other four and back again. Sokka could practically see the machinery at work in his head. Something was off about Aang, and not in a good way. And every sign being given by a handful of Appa's other closest human friends agreed with that. But, then again, the sky bison had been Aang's companion for forever, through thick and thin. Aang would never steer him wrong.
"Why are you doing this, Aang?" Toph demanded. "It's one life versus the world. I know I'm not exactly the sentimental type you are, but as the Avatar you of all people should be able to understand the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few!"
Aang's voice, as well as the voice of the innumerable Avatars of the past, spoke hollowly together, "I am the Avatar. I am the bridge between this world and the Spirit world. I must protect the Other Half."
"The hell is the Other Half?"
Sokka reached out to the floating sky bison. "Appa, please," begged the warrior, "help us."
Already knowing something was fishy, the sheer desperation in the voice of the usually jovial Water Tribe boy set off all kinds of alarm bells for Appa. In a flash, he did a backflip, blowing a gust of wind at the Avatar and then zipping low to the ground, close enough for the quartet to hop on his back. The sky bison flew as fast as he could. When they penetrated the cloud layer, though, he let out one last desperate moan as Aang was left behind.
"We failed," whimpered Zuko. "We failed worse than we could have ever imagined."
A/N: Aang being so aggressive here is due to a mixture of factors. In a large part, that's because of him being emotionally unstable and confused right now, but he's also doing it to "put on a show" for Azula so that he's certain she won't hurt Katara. And of course, the Avatar State is making him go a little wild as well, like in the final battle with Ozai. Don't worry, Aang won't be unhinged going forward, but he's not gonna be having a good time, either.