The sun appears to be setting over the oceans horizon as Appa continues his swim. The bright light seeping into the water entrancing Percy as he thinks, he isn't sure if he's pleased the creature can't fly or if he feels bad because it must be exhausting with the four of them on his back. Katara and Aang seem to be having a conversation at Appa's head while Sokka and Percy are lying on the saddle in comfortable silence until Sokka breaks it asking "you sure your okay man, those cuts look pretty painful, how'd you get em anyway?" he asks looking at the cuts on his body. This catches Aang and Katara's attention as they were also wondering the same thing.
Percy sighs gently "I'm fine" but he can see the look on the others faces telling him they don't believe him. Percy groans knowing they won't leave it alone so he moves to the side of Appa and holds his hand in the water letting the slowly moving water hit his hand. The others watch in amazement as the water moves gently up his arm and heal his wounds leaving a few scars behind. Sure Percy could have done that earlier but honestly the pain didn't bother him anymore, he'd become accustomed to the constant stinging that it kind of kept him grounded. "There, all good". Katara looks at him with stars in her eyes making Percy look slightly confused "you're a waterbender!"
"A what?" he asks. "A waterbender like me but I'm not very good yet". "Err right... look I'm not exactly from around here and frankly I have no idea what you're talking about" Percy says with a shrug of his shoulder thankful that the movement doesn't bring pain anymore. The others look confused "you must still be confused after waking from that ice" Katara says before turning away deciding to talk about this tomorrow, They were all pretty tired after their little adventure today, well to them it was but to Percy today seems pretty calm.
"What about your chest, is that healed too?" Sokka asks. This makes Percy look at his chest to see a deep blood red covering it long since dried. Percy looks saddened and nearly sick looking at it before he zips up his jacket and lies on his side not facing anyone "it's not my blood" he says in a low voice. The others wanted to question it but could tell it was a touchy subject so they left it alone still not sure how they feel about this new friend they've picked up. They all soon fall asleep on Appa's back as they make their way to the southern water tribe. All except Percy who laid awake thinking about what was said to him before he left "You must go now young hero, to save this new world ".
Percy knows he's not in his world anymore, that much is painfully obvious, he can just feel it, the world around him has a different rhythm to his own, even the water felt new to him. This is what they meant when they said new world but what exactly was he saving it from? However his thoughts soon fade and become filled with images of his friends, the ones he couldn't save. He feels the tears falling but can't bring himself to make any sounds; it's like a pain that is just a part of his being like breathing, he wasn't sure he deserved to feel okay ever again. He's not sure he can feel anything again; he hasn't even shivered once since he woke up surrounded by ice. It just feels right to be cold.
Time Skip
"Aaahhh!" Aang screamed as he shot awake.
Katara stands in front of him "It's okay Aang. We're in the village now. Come on, get ready. Everyone's waiting to meet you." Aang gets up and puts on his shirt and hood. Katara looks at his airbender tattoos before she grabs Aang by the hand and drags him outside trying to ignore her own curiosity. He carries a staff with him as they leave.
Katara pulls Aang outside until he is stood in front of no more than two dozen people "this is the entire village. Entire village, Aang."Aang bows to them in a friendly manner, but the people pull back from him. "Uh... why are they all looking at me like that? Did Appa sneeze on me?" he says half joking while searching his body for any snot from the big creature.
An elderly woman explains finally speaking up "Well, no one has seen an airbender in a hundred years. We thought they were extinct until my granddaughter and grandson found you. "Extinct"? Aang says but soon forgets as Katara continues "Aang, this is my grandmother." "Call me Gran Gran." She replies sweetly
Percy who has been sitting at the side watching the entire exchange from a distance just trying to take in his surroundings, a habit he picked up after having to constantly look out for danger. He becomes distracted as a little girl runs over to him chasing after a ball that rolled away from her. Percy picks it up before handing it back to her. As the little girl takes it she just stares at him for a moment before smiling seemingly pleased by whatever she found "I'm Crystal, what's your name?" she asked sweetly.
Percy just stared at her a moment. She has dark brown hair put up into a braid and one of her front teeth missing giving her an innocent and sweet smile. She seemed so carefree and happy it made the corners of Percy's lips rise. "I'm Percy" and she smiles again with a toothy grin. "That's a strange name" but Percy knew she didn't mean it in a horrible way, he always liked that about kids, they just spoke their minds not bothering to lie. "Come on Percy" she laughs and grabs his hand gently pulling him to the others. Katara spots Percy coming towards them "oh and this is Percy" she announces to the tribe.
They look at him warily at first but as they look to see crystal holding his hand they become less tense seeing his face gently looking at her letting her pull him around with no argument despite the uncomfortable angle he is in having to lean down slightly so she can hold his hand. Sokka stomps over and takes the staff that Aang was holding grabbing people attention again "What is this, a weapon? You can't stab anything with this." Percy can see that it means a lot to Aang by the look on his face so he grabs it fixing Sokka with a look before passing it back to Aang who nods in thanks. "It's not for stabbing. It's for airbending." Aang opens the staff into a glider with red wings. "Magic trick! Do it again!" Crystal says excitedly standing beside Percy.
"Not magic, airbending. It lets me control the air currents around my glider and fly." Aang explains. "You know, last time I checked, humans can't fly." Sokka groans and Percy rolls his eyes, he'd seen a lot weirder things than people flying heck Jason used to do it all the time. Percy face became saddened at the thought of his friends in the past tense.
Aang smiles at Sokka before he launches himself into the air with his glider. He soars through the air, doing loops as the villagers on the ground point to him in wonder. Crystal struggles to see over the others being the smallest so Percy picks her up and places her on his shoulders with ease making her smile now she can see him fly.
Aang looks down at Katara who smiles at him. He is so enthralled with her attention that he slams right into Sokka's guard tower. He pulls his head out of the tower and falls to the ground with his glider. "My watchtower!" Sokka yells trying to fix it. "That was amazing Aang" Katara says as she helps Aang back to his feet. He twirls his glider shut as Sokka examines the damaged tower behind him. Percy just smirks and gently lowers Crystal back to the ground
"Great. You're an airbender, Katara's a waterbender, Percy's a waterbender, and together you can just waste time all day long." Percy finally asks what he's been wondering "err yeh about that what's this about waterbending?" Katara look at him confuse "that's how you healed yourself isn't it, using waterbending" but Percy shakes his head. Gran Gran looks at Percy closer having heard the conversation. She begins taking in every detail she can see before seeing his SPQR tattoo and the trident tattoo on his arms thanks to his sleeves being rolled up.
She gasps in amazement "You. You are a child of the gods" she exclaims. Thankfully the other villagers were back to running the tribe, that left only Aang, Sokka, Katara, Gran Gran and Crystal to be confused by Gran Gran's statement. They became even more confused when she kneeled in front of him.
Percy became very uncomfortable and helped her stand again "please don't kneel to me, I don't deserve it and it makes me feel uncomfortable" he says rubbing his neck and wondering how the heck she knows any of this. "Don't deserve it! You deserve so much more!" she explains astonished at him humbleness. "Wait a second Gran Gran do you know him?" Katara asks followed by Sokka "yeh and why did you bow to him?!" he says with his mouth agape, his Gran may be old but she was no push over so seeing her showing Percy such respect was astounding to him.
She gestures for them to follow her into her home; Percy leans down to Crystal and tells her that he will come play with her in a little while. When they get there she pulls out an old box full of scrolls and books all looking dusty but untouched. She picks up the scrolls like they are made of glass and places them gently on the table "These scrolls tell tales of the world bellow our own, it speaks of the Gods of that world and their children. Very powerful beings who reside over their earth and our own but from a greater distance. But when the fighting began the Fire lord commanded that all scrolls containing the tales were to be burned, he hated the idea of there being beings more powerful than himself"
The others just looked confused as they scanned over the scrolls. Most of them covered in writing they couldn't read and images of monsters and solders that just confused them more. "What are you talking about, they are just stories?" Sokka says remembering a few times when she would tell them stories but honestly there were too many long names for Sokka to pay attention to. But Gran Gran shakes her head," I thought so too until I saw him" she says pointing to Percy. "What do you mean that's just Percy?" Aang says confused, Percy however wasn't paying them any mind as he looked at the scrolls seeing familiar names written in Greek and images flashing in his head of the battles it spoke of. Gran Gran shakes her head.
"I believe Percy is not just a demigod but the greatest demigod to ever live, Perseus Jackson the son of Poseidon, Prince of the sea, savour of Olympus, Champion of the gods, Patron of heroes, Protector and leader of demigods, the loyal, wayward hero and the strongest in history. Master of swordsmanship and defier of the fates and prophecies, bearer of burdens and the bane of those who threaten your friends."
"And these books tell tales of your achievements: Retriever of the master bolt, the golden fleece, the master bolt, Hades helm and the twelfth legions eagle. Navigator of the labyrinth and sea of monsters. Bane of kronos and Gaia. Conqueror of titans, monsters and gods, bearer of the sky, praetor of the camps, survivor of torturous and the savour of Olympus."
The others stood in complete shock "is that true Percy?" Katara asks. Percy look down at his feet thinking of those works knowing he didn't deserve to even be called a hero "how did you know" he practically whispers to Gran Gran. "Your tattoos, the SPQR one tells me you fought for the legion and the trident tells me you are the son of the great Poseidon, god of the sea, Tides, earthquakes and horses."
"Yep that dear old dad" Percy chuckles dryly. "Wait! So you're seriously half God!" Sokka yells leaving Percy to just nod, he figured there was no harm in telling them, the fates never told him he had to keep it a secret and honestly at this point he didn't care what they had to say anyway. "Well that explains the weird clothes" Sokka jokes trying to lighten the mood unsuccessfully. "But what are you doing in our world?" Katara asks still not sure if she even believes there are other worlds let alone Percy being from one of them. Percy rubs his neck "I'm not too sure on that myself, after the wars the fates told me I have to help save this world, not sure how though" he shrugs.
"Wait wars? You fought in wars as in more than one? You're only a year older than me!" Sokka exclaims. Percy shakes his head "I was even younger in the first one" that made everyone's jaw drop except for Gran Gran. She gently lays a hand on his shoulder making him look at her "I am sorry for all you have been through, so much pain for someone so young". This made everyone silent and if Percy was alone he may have cried but he just sucked it up like always "that's the life of a demigod, just fight every day until you are at peace one way or another".
"That's not fair!" Katara exclaims. "Life isn't fair when you're a demigod; I'm one of the oldest alive. I've been fighting for my life since I was 12 and that's not going to change now. It's just the way it is". He says calmly trying to digest his own words. Trying to change the subject Percy asks "are their monsters in this world too" Percy asks. "There are less in our world and they tend to leave people alone, people tend to not even notice they are there but if your here they may come after you"
"Why would they go after Percy?" Aang asks not at all bothered by the thought of monsters roaming around. "Because Percy is very powerful and the monsters can sense it and hunt him down, am I right?" she asks "basically, the stronger the godly parent the more things want to kill you" he replies dryly. "And how powerful is this Poseidon" Sokka asks. "He's one of the three most powerful gods alive".
"Damn at least we have someone powerful in case the fire nation comes." "What, why would that be such a bad thing?" Aang asks and Percy asks "fire nation?" Katara speaks "Aang, how long were you and Percy in that iceberg?" "I don't know... a few days, maybe?" Katara pauses "I think it was more like a hundred years!" she replies. "What? That's impossible. Do I look like a hundred-twelve year old man to you?" Aang replies while Percy gets a sinking feeling she's right. "Think about it. The war is a century old. You don't know about it because, somehow, you were in there that whole time. It's the only explanation."
"A hundred years! I can't believe it. " Aang says flabbergasted. Percy on the other hand remains silent thinking about his mum, he pulls his hair slightly "I promised her I'd come back" he says to himself but the others hear. "Who?" Katara asks gently. "My mum, I promised her I'd come back to her, she was all I had left and now..." "Oh Percy, I'm so sorry." Katara says but Percy gets up and leaves quickly ignoring the shouts of his name behind him. It was all too much at once.
Percy walks just outside of the tribe before he collapses to the floor tears rolling down his face; damn he was so done with crying. He pulls his knees towards him hiding his face "I thought you couldn't take anymore from me but I guess I was wrong" he cries to the sky. Percy sits there and stares at the water for a long time, thinking about his mother and home. Percy made the Gods swear to look after her so she would have lived a long and happy life; he just wished he could see her one more time. He didn't get to show her his smile again. He got a sickening feeling in his chest like his heart broke even more as he realised that now he really was alone, there was no one left for him now.
An hour or more passes before Percy is alerted to another presence but before he can get alarmed he sees the small figure of Crystal hiding around the snow bank. "I can see you Crystal" he tries to say in a jokey voice but it just comes out broken. "Sorry" she says not looking him in the eye but Percy is confused "why are you sorry?" he asks. "You seem sad so I'm sorry". This makes Percy look at her for a moment before opening his arms to her; she rushes to him and hugs him tightly. He may have only known her for a day but he wasn't new to comforting children. The youngest ones at camp often cried when they first arrived scared the monsters were going to get them and Percy soon made it his personal mission to make them smile and honestly he needed a hug right now "you don't have to be sorry for that, it's not your fault, I'm just sad because I lost someone important to me."
She looks at him "I lost my daddy, he went to fight in the war but he never came back." Percy's heart sinks for her, at least he got to grow up with his mum but she lost her dad before she even got to know him. "I'm sorry Crystal" he says hugging her tighter. "I'm scared" she whispers. "Scared of what?" Percy asks gently. "I'm scared that the fire nation is going to take me". Percy holds her tighter and says firm but in a gentle voice "I won't let that happen, I promise". She looks up into his eyes and sees nothing but honesty and smiles. "Now come on, you can show me how to make a proper snow ball".
She soon forgets her sadness and pulls Percy along showing him all sort of thing in her Tribe telling Percy all about her home. Soon they come across Sokka teaching kids how to be soldiers. They stop and watch for a while. "Now men, it's important that you show no fear when you face a firebender. In the Water Tribe, we fight to the last man standing. For without courage, how can we call ourselves men?" Sokka speaks to a group of six children, most of them toddlers. Percy just chuckles as one of them raises their hand saying they need to pee. "Listen! Until your father's return from the war, they're counting on you to be the men of this tribe. And that means no potty breaks." Sokka says assertively but it falls on deaf ears "but I really gotta go." Sokka gives up "Okay... who else has to go?" and all the children raise their hand before running off.
Aang appears out of nowhere and starts playing with the kids much to Sokka's dismay "Stop! Stop it right now!" he yells at Aang "What's wrong with you? We don't have time for fun and games with a war going on." "What war? What are you talking about?" Aang asks but before anyone can reply he yells "Penguin" and runs off with Katara following after him.
Sokka groans on the floor giving up trying to get the kids to listen. "What do you expect they are kids?" Percy says standing over him watching Crystal running off with the other kids. "Yeh well someone has to protect this place and all the men are off fighting!" Percy just shakes his head "the reason they are fighting is so their children don't have too". Sokka is left speechless thinking about what he said "trust me, I know what it's like to be thrust into war as a child and there is no glory in it, no courage and honour, just a lot of death. Let kids be kids even if they are living in ignorance"
Sokka looks at him, his eyes travelling to the scars visible on his skin before nodding cringing at how painful they must have been and unbeknownst to him still are. "Now, tell me about this world and this war" Percy says as he sits next to Sokka with a thud. "Well there are four nations. One for every element. Water. Earth. Fire. And Air. 100 years ago, the four nations lived together. But then, everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked. Only the Avatar, master of all four elements, could stop them, but when the world needed him, he vanished. It's been a hundred years since then and still no sign of the avatar. Without him the fire nation has been free to take over. The only real army left is the earth kingdom and they are slowly losing."
"What's this Avatar then?" Percy asks thinking over his words. Percy finds it strange that the world is split into four but the more he thinks about it his world was spilt far more than that. "The avatar is the human form of light and peace through the connection with the Avatar Spirit. They are the only being with the ability to bend all four elements, it is considered the Avatar's duty to master the four and use that power to keep balance. Every time the avatar dies they are reincarnated into the next nation but the Avatar is said to have never reincarnated to the air nomads."
"You know you're smarter than you look" Percy jokes knowing others say the same about him. "Can everyone 'bend' then?" Percy asks and Sokka shakes his head "no, most people can't, were called non-benders, doesn't mean I can't fight though" Sokka says holding his sword to his side. "No doubt, fancy a spar" replies Percy. Sokka gets a gleam in his eye "really!" "Sure it's been a hundred years since I had a good fight" Percy says getting up and helping Sokka up. Percy shakes his head slightly at that sentence, only he could say those words and think they weren't completely outlandish.
Percy gets out riptide and clicks it making it into his signature bronze sword "whoa" Sokka exclaims. "That's a nice sword!" Percy nods "yeh it's magic, if I ever lose it, it just returns to my pocket." Sokka closes his mouth trying to look like he's not totally amazed and they start to fight. Sokka is only stood for about a second before Percy sword is at his neck.
"Rematch!" Sokka says and they have one, and another, and many more until Sokka falls to the ground exhausted "what are you made of?!" Percy chuckles. "You did pretty well, you have a good swing" but Sokka shakes his head "I lost every time and didn't hit you once!" "Don't take it too hard, I am the demigod of swordsmanship after all, I'm the greatest sword fighter to have lived, apparently" he says impressed rubbing his neck. "Dude! You are my idol!" Suddenly they are interrupted by a bright light of fire shooting into the sky like a firework. "Oh no!" Sokka exclaims.
Back on the ship
Zuko stands at the helm of the ship looking at the light "The last airbender." Zuko mutters "Wake my uncle! Tell him I found the Avatar...as well as his hiding place."