Tests

The next few days had been fairly frustrating for Danny. On the first day, they spent hours with Danny unsuccessfully trying to go through the airbending gates. Danny even considered becoming intangible and going right through the gates, just to end it, but knew that would get nothing done in the end.

After one final un-majestic go through the gates, they decided airbending was not Danny's native element. So they moved on to waterbending exercises. Roku decided to wait until the next night to test this since there was a full moon. In the mean time, Roku showed Danny some basic waterbending stances, and had him practice and perfect them by nightfall.

When night did come, and the full moon rose in the sky, Gyatsu led Danny and Roku to a large pond.

"Are you feeling anything?" Roku asked as they walked. "Any sort of power from the full moon."

Danny frowned.

"Not really. I don't feel any different, anyways."

They arrived at the pond, which was about thirty feet in diameter. While it was normally surrounded by people and flying bison, with the bison drinking and perhaps children playing in the water, it was now calm and very still; glowing in the light of the moon.

"Alright Danny," Roku told him, getting into the simple back stance parallel to the pond, "Get into the back stance I showed you. That's it, good. Now, do what I do after I show you. slowly shift into a front stance, push your hands towards the water as you go into the front stance. As you do this, feel your energy flow through you."

As Roku moved forwards, the water pushed forward, and Danny watched in amazement. "And then move back into the back stance, your arms and body moving with you." He retreated back into his back-stance, and the water retreated with him. He repeated this several times, slowly and fluidly, the pond seemed to be like the ocean, waves pushing and pulling, splashing onto where land met the water.

Roku stopped and faced Danny; the water became still once again.

"Now you try."

Danny looked at the water and he moved forwards and shot his hands forwards with him. And just as quickly he retreated back into his back stance. Roku shook his head.

"Not so fast Danny. Slowly shift your weight from your back leg, to your front. Bring your front arm and back arm forward as you shift your weight, with your front arm finishing further out than your back. Then, just as slowly, bring it back again. Slow, and smooth. Rhythmic. Like the ocean's waves." Roku told him and Danny nodded. He looked back to the water, and took a deep breath. He closed his eyes to concentrate.

Danny slowly, and smoothly, brought his body into a front stance. His arms moved with him, outstretched towards the water. Danny then brought it all back. He repeated this several times, rythmetically. Beginning to feel cool, and relaxed, he opened his eyes and looked at the pond.

Nothing. Not even a ripple. It was still smooth with the moons reflection taunting him at the surface. Danny frowned and took another deep breath.

"Keep trying, Danny." Roku reassured him, and he continued for a couple of hours before giving up.

"This isn't it. Nothing's happening." Danny said, finally getting out of the stance and stretching.

"Bending requires patience, Danny. Patience and repetition."

Danny moaned and got back into his back stance. He continued to do the motions, but now it was lack lustered. Danny wasn't trying since he really didn't feel anything or any sort of connection, and Roku could see that.

Roku called Danny off and told him to go to his sleeping quarters, and that he would greet him in the morning. Danny thanked him and walked to the room the monks had let him stay in, then promptly fell asleep.

The next morning, Roku greeted Danny in the courtyard.

"Today, we're going to try something a less traditional." Roku told him.

Danny raised an eyebrow.

"What do you mean?"

"Well," Roku started explaining, "We've been going about this the way the Avatar would learn the elements. We started with air, then moved to water, and now we should test with earth, and after that move to fire."

"So?"

"So today, instead of testing for earthbending, we'll be testing to see if you are a firebender."

"Why are we skipping earth?"

"For several reasons. One of them is that from the beginning, when I first met you, I felt a strange connection with you. I had a feeling you could also be a native to firebending, and it was ignorant of me to ignore that and have to try the other elements first,and it would be ignorant to continue that cycle. It just seemed strange to have two Fire Nation Avatars in the same place, at the same time."

Danny nodded. It seemed to make sense… Or at least as much sense as the rest this world did.

"What other reasons were there?"

Roku frowned and looked to the side.

"To be honest, Danny, I don't have the slightest idea where to start to test for earthbending."

Danny stared at him for a minute and laughed, and Roku smiled. Unknown to Roku, this was the first time Danny had laughed in over a year.

"I would contact my earthbending teacher, but it would take at least a month for him to to receive the message, respond, and travel up here. And I doubt he would understand this current situation."

With a flick of his wrist, Roku sent a small ball of air down to the ground towards a leaf. The leaf was launched into the air, and spiral down into Roku's hand. Roku gave the leaf to Danny, and told him to hold the leaf with both his hands. He then then pressed the middle of the leaf with his index finger and thumb. There was a small hssss as a hole was created in the leaf with red, burning edges.

"Try and concentrate on keeping the rest of the leaf from burning. Keep that hole contained in the center.

Danny looked at the leaf, and stared intensely at red edges. He pictured the red edges not expanding in his mind, and held onto that image. But, soon the leaf was eaten by the burning edges, and Danny was left holding nothing.

Danny sighed and Roku grabbed another leaf, and repeated the previous steps. Danny was once again holding a burning leaf.

"Keep trying Danny." Roku reassured him as that leaf burnt up. He gave Danny another leaf, this time the burning held. Danny felt hopeful as the leaf maintained.

After ten minutes of the leaf staying hole, Danny smiled and got excited, but then his face twisted into an expression of dismay as the leaf once again burnt. He was given another leaf. As he held it, the hole slowly began to increase.

"Concentrate, Danny!" Roku told him.

"I am!" Danny yelled in frustration, and the entire leaf disintegrated. Danny gasped and look down at his hands.

He was holding a small flame. Roku's look of surprise turned into a smile as he watched Danny look at the tiny flame in wonder.

"Well done, Danny." Roku put his hand on Danny's shoulder. "It looks like my initial feeling about you was right. Had you have been born in this world, you would have been a firebender."

Danny looked up at Roku, and the flame extinguished.

A/N: Okay, so that's done. I was going to continue this chapter with Roku and Danny going back to Roku's home island to train, but I started researching if Roku and his wife would have had kids by now, but I went to far into it, got lost in the wiki, and emerged a few hours later after someone out there rolled a five or an eight (thank you). But now I'm exhausted and must rest before continuing.

And let me tell you, Zuko's grandparent being Roku has some PLOT HOLES. Mainly the age of one of Ursa's parents. I'm also pretty sure the wiki got Ursa's age wrong, but I won't go into that.

Please review! Tell me what you think! Or let me know if you have the answer to this Roku's child thing!