Surprise timeskip! Making this a non-linear narrative for maximum confusion and adding quotes from the fictional "Tale of the Feral Fire Prince". I'm going all-in on this title. Strap in!

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Scene 2: The Path to Immortality

This above all – to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as with Tui goes La,
Thou canst not then be false to anyone.

~ The Tale of the Feral Fire Prince, Act 1, Scene 3

Aang was in a good mood, and it was only lifting the closer they drew to the Southern Air Temple. Finally, he was going home.

Granted, to him, it felt like only a few days since he'd been there last, but apparently a hundred years had passed since he got caught in that storm. Imagine, a hundred years in a block of ice! Crazy!

Katara kept trying to tell him that things might be different at his home now, but Aang didn't want to think about it. The Water Tribe siblings said there was a war that had been going on for a hundred years, that the Fire Nation was everyone's enemy, and that the airbenders had gone extinct, but maybe they were wrong. He'd been to the Fire Nation many times; he had friends there! They weren't bad people. And there was no way that there were no more airbenders. They were probably just in hiding. Airbenders were better at hiding than most people think because they could get to places no one else could with their ability to fly. They couldn't just be gone. That would mean the world was completely out of balance. And Aang didn't want to think about the implications of that.

As it turned out, the Southern Air Temple was empty. Okay, a bit disappointing, but not too surprising. The airbenders would hardly be hiding if they just stayed in a place widely known to be theirs. He'd find them eventually; it was just going to take a little longer than he thought, that's all.

So if the Air Temple really was empty, why did Aang feel like they were being watched?

The feeling of someone watching persisted throughout his and Sokka's short-lived game of airball, and when Aang was unable to shake it off, he suggested they move inside and explore the temple.

Aang felt a complicated mix of emotions when he saw the statue of Monk Gyatso. He felt like his heart was being squeezed with fondness, nostalgia, grief, and…even a little shame. He knew that Gyatso was dead. His teacher had been an old man a hundred years ago. He must have passed away a long time ago.

Aang had left without saying goodbye to him. He'd left. And everything had changed.

It was time to meet whoever awaited him in the sanctuary.

Aang was a little surprised to realize that the person in the sanctuary was…himself? His past lives, at least, even though he didn't know any of their names except Avatar Roku. And how did he know that anyway?

Sokka was right, it was weird. Aang wasn't sure what to think about it. Maybe he didn't want to think about this either.

Good thing he had a new friend to capture to take his mind off it!

Racing Sokka to catch the lemur was exhilarating and fun, and had the added bonus of being an excellent distraction from his thoughts. This little lemur was pretty good at evasion!

Aang rounded another corner and came to a screeching halt.

There was a dragon standing before him, looking right at him with an unnerving golden gaze.

And there was a lemur tail dangling from its mouth.

"Hey! Spit him out! That's my pet!"

Aang heard footsteps pounding up behind him, Sokka panting as he caught up.

"Aww, a dragon got my dinner!" Sokka whined. Then he did a double take. "A dragon?!"

"No one is eating my new lemur friend!" Aang insisted, holding out each hand in the universal symbol for stop towards Sokka and the dragon. "C'mon, little guy, please let him go!"

"Little?" Sokka choked out.

"Well, yeah, for a dragon. He's only about fifty feet long. Probably only a few years old."

"Oh, sure, only fifty feet!"

Aang decided it best to just ignore Sokka's muttering for now. "We'll find you something else to eat, okay, buddy? Just put. The lemur. Down."

"Something else to eat? What, like one of us? Because I think we're the only other things around here that a dragon would be interested in eating, Aang!" Aang was ignoring Sokka.

Aang started to inch forward. He didn't want to startle it so that it accidently swallowed or something. The dragon didn't move, and it didn't take its eyes off him. "That's it, easy now," he cooed. "Just give me the lemur, and we can all be friends." Aang stretched out his hand…

…Only to snatch it back and jump away when a jet of flame surged between him and the dragon. Oh no! Did it fry his lemur? But wait, the flame hadn't come from the dragon, it came from—

"Get away from him!"

There was a boy suddenly standing between him and the dragon, one fist punched forward and the other drawn back and ready. His golden eyes glared at Aang in a striking similarity to the beast behind him.

"Firebender!" Sokka squawked, just as Katara ran up to them. "Aang, let's get out of here!"

"I just want the lemur, then we'll go," Aang told both Sokka and the boy.

"Aang, we need to go!" There was a definite note of fear in Katara's voice. "Please!"

Aang stiffened. He'd forgotten—Katara's mother was killed by a firebender. There was a war on with the Fire Nation. Maybe it would be best to run. He took a step back, biting his lip. But the poor lemur…

The firebender glanced back at the dragon, then looked at Aang hesitating. Then he sighed and dropped out of his bending stance. Aang watched, disconcerted, as the boy simply reached up and tugged at the beard on the dragon's chin, and the dragon allowed the boy to pull its head down to eye level. The boy looked the dragon in the eye and then firmly patted its jaw. His meaning couldn't have been clearer—open up.

The dragon whined and looked at the boy with an expression that would not be out of place on a bison calf begging for treats, but the boy only rolled his eyes, then grasped the dragon's two elongated fangs and pried its jaws open. Aang and his friends watched, mouths agape, as the boy reached his whole arm past razor-sharp teeth into the beast's maw. Moments later, he withdrew a wet ball of black and white fur.

"Here," he said, tossing the ball to Aang. Aang, surprised, nearly fumbled the lemur, still slick with dragon spit, but managed not to drop him. The lemur immediately latched onto his torso and held on with all its might, trembling.

"You don't need to leave," the boy said, voice a bit raspy and hoarse, like maybe he wasn't used to talking. "We'll be on our way now."

He turned away, leaving the three friends flabbergasted. He had grasped the dragon's mane, about to mount up, when Aang finally managed to shake off his shock.

"Wait!" The boy looked at him, but didn't let go of the mane. "You're leaving?"

"This place is yours," the boy said. "You have far more right to be here than we do. Sorry for trespassing, but I didn't think any airbenders would be coming back here."

"You were the one I felt watching us," Aang realized. The boy nodded. Aang gave him a tentative smile. "Well, won't you stay for a while?"

"Aang!" Sokka hissed. Aang was still ignoring him.

The boy definitely heard though, because he looked over at Sokka and Katara. Aang followed his gaze. Sokka's expression was all fear that he was badly concealing with a glare. Katara was wide-eyed and pale.

"I wouldn't want to make anyone uncomfortable," the boy said. He sounded more than a little uncomfortable himself.

Aang kept up what he hoped was a welcoming smile. "If this place is mine, then I can invite anyone I want to stay here with me. Consider this a formal invitation. As thanks for saving my lemur friend." The lemur in question chittered angrily.

The dragon finally made the decision for the boy by shaking its neck, dislodging his grip in its mane and raising its head above the boy's reach. The boy huffed at it, but it only tilted its head in a gesture that looked like curiosity to Aang.

The boy still looked uncertain, but he turned to Aang and gave a formal bow, hands together in the sign of respect common in the Fire Nation. "I accept your invitation."

"Great!" Aang said over Sokka's groan. "My name's Aang. Pleased to meet you!"

"Zuko. And this is Druk. The pleasure is ours."

"Hey, you're a firebender, right? We just found this cool statue in the sanctuary, and we're trying to figure out more about it. Maybe you'll know more! C'mon!"

Aang grabbed Sokka and Katara's hands and strode off, leaving Zuko to follow them.

"Aang! What are you doing!" Sokka hissed. "He's a firebender! You can't trust him!"

"I think it's okay, Sokka," Aang whispered. "He saved the lemur. And he was being respectful about not trespassing in the temple. He was going to leave without hurting anyone."

"Yeah, he was leaving—so he could go get all his firebending friends to take us down!"

"He has a dragon. Pretty sure he wouldn't need other firebenders to defeat us."

"Oh, very reassuring. And that's another thing—where did he get the dragon? I thought they were supposed to be extinct!"

Aang glanced at Sokka, surprised. "Really? They definitely weren't extinct a hundred years ago."

"The Fire Nation hunted the dragons to extinction during the war," Katara said in low, flat voice. "They killed them. Just like they kill everything."

Aang turned to look at Katara. She was still very pale. Aang could feel her hand shaking in his, even through her mitten.

"Well," Aang started slowly, "it must be a good sign that he has a dragon. If he's hiding a dragon from the Fire Nation, then maybe that means that he doesn't agree with what they're doing."

Katara looked at him, worry in her beautiful blue eyes. "I hope you know what you're doing, Aang. We don't know anything about this guy, but I think we can safely assume that he's dangerous."

Aang swallowed. "I have a good feeling about him. Can you give him a chance?"

Katara looked back at him a moment, then slowly nodded. Sokka scoffed.

"Well, glad we're risking all our lives on a kid's hunch. Whatever. I will be watching that guy like an eagle hawk. He better not try anything."

Or what? Aang wondered, but said nothing to his friend.

"This is amazing. There are so many of them." Their new friend seemed to relax a bit once he entered the sanctuary and had something else to focus on.

"Zuko, here!" Aang called him over. "Do you know this one?"

"Avatar Roku," he said immediately. "The last known Avatar."

Aang winced, hearing him put it like that. "Do you know anything about him?"

"He was Fire Nation, of course," he said. "I don't remember much. He knew Fire Lord Sozin, I think." Aang's heart sank. Could it be that his previous life had been friends with someone that started a worldwide war? Zuko glanced at him and hurried on. "But that's probably not surprising. The Avatar's work often brings them in contact with government leaders. To negotiate peace."

Aang appreciated Zuko trying to soften the blow, awkward as he was at it, but Aang had to know the truth. "Do you know anything about how he…how he died?"

"There was an enormous volcanic eruption on his home island. He died trying to save the village from it." Zuko glanced at Aang. "At least, that's what I remember from reading about it."

Something about Zuko's explanation felt false to Aang, like there was more to it than that. Aang shook it off. He was pretty sure Zuko wasn't lying, just maybe didn't have all the facts.

"This is Avatar Kyoshi, the Avatar before Roku," Zuko said, moving to the statue next to Roku. "She lived over two hundred years. I don't remember the name of the Avatar before her, but the one before him is Avatar Yangchen, the last Avatar from the Air Nomads. Well, that we know of."

That last comment made Aang squirm a bit. Sokka was tense as a kite string, glaring suspiciously at the strange boy. "How do you know all that?"

Zuko shrugged without looking at him. "The basic history of the Avatar is a standard part of the curriculum in the Fire Nation."

Aang looked away from where Sokka was mouthing curriculum with a look on his face like the word had given him a bad taste and turned his attention to Zuko, who was slowly moving along the spiral curve of Avatars past, examining the statues with interest.

He looked like he was about Sokka's age, only probably a little older because he was a little taller and definitely had more muscle. His clothes were…interesting, in that they didn't seem to follow the regular style for the Fire Nation. Maybe the style had changed in the last hundred years? But it really just looked like he cobbled together whatever clothes he came across first that would fit. They're a mix of mostly dark colors, not all red, and were threadbare and travel-worn.

His hair was roughly cut but still fell in his eyes a little. He wasn't wearing a topknot. Aang wondered why. Topknots had a cultural meaning in the Fire Nation; he didn't think that style would change, even after a hundred years.

But all this about the boy's appearance was something that Aang took in later, because Zuko's main feature was a huge scar covering most of the left side of his face, stretching over his eye and ear. His left eyelid was narrowed in a permanent squint because of the disfigurement, but the eye itself was still a clear gold and alert, so Aang thought that he could probably still see fine. Which was frankly a miracle, because it must have been a really bad burn. Aang was full of curiosity about how he got the scar, but it was probably rude to ask. Maybe a training accident? How careful were dragons with their flame?

The other boy may have noticed Aang staring at him, because he started talking again, trying for some stilted conversation. "This place is fascinating. I knew this room was here, but when I couldn't open the door, I figured I should leave it alone."

Aang blinked. "You've been here, at the Southern Air Temple, before?"

Zuko nodded. "Druk and I prefer places far away from people." Then he realized that what he said might be rude and stumbled over his words trying to explain. "Sorry, I mean, we're just safer if not too many people see us. Not that we—don't—want you near us. And we didn't mean to trespass here."

"That's okay," Aang said. "Do you travel a lot? Where have you been?" Maybe Zuko knew a good place to go next. Aang really wanted to ride the hopping llamas, but he'd be up for anything new.

"I guess we have, over the past year. There are plenty of areas in the Earth Kingdom that are still pretty remote. And…we've been to the Western and Eastern Air Temples too."

"Really?" Aang's excitement suddenly dropped when he remembered. "I guess those are uninhabited too then, huh?" Zuko nodded. "What about the Northern Air Temple?"

"Haven't been there. There are people living there." When he saw Aang's eyes grow wide, he hastened on. "Not airbenders though. At least, not as far as I could tell."

"Oh." Aang sagged, a little crestfallen. "So, are you traveling because you're, like, on a mission or something? Where were you before you came here?"

"No mission, besides Druk needing to stretch his wings. We were at the South Pole before we headed up here."

All Aang had time to do was blink before Sokka was in Zuko's face. "What were you doing at the South Pole? Pillaging villages? Burning down homes? Ravaging my people? Huh? Answer me!"

"Sokka!" Aang grabbed the back of his anorak and tried to tug him away from the other boy, but Sokka just sprang right back into place like a glider's fan tail. To Zuko's credit, he didn't back away from Sokka's confrontation, nor did he meet Sokka's anger with his own, instead speaking calmly.

"We were only exploring the ice plains. We never even got within five leagues of a village. We go to places where we can avoid human attention, and there are lots of places in the South Pole that are uninhabited."

"Yeah, and whose fault is that?" Sokka growled. "The Fire Nation has been raiding our villages for decades, that's why it's so uninhabited!"

Zuko's brow drew down as he frowned. "…I don't know what you want me to say. I'm sorry that happened, but I didn't have any part in that."

"You're still a firebender—an ashmaker, just like the people who killed our mother." And before Aang could react to stop him, Sokka threw a punch at Zuko.

In the blink of an eye, Zuko had caught Sokka's fist, twisted his arm behind him and pushed him up face-first against the statue of an Earth Kingdom Avatar.

"Enough!" Aang shouted, and bent a ball of air between Zuko and Sokka, expanding it to push them away from each other. Zuko managed to keep his feet, but Sokka fell hard on his rear. An echoing silence ensued in which Aang just wasn't sure what to say. He knew that Sokka's people were fighting against the Fire Nation in a war, but…he hadn't realized he hated firebenders so much. How could he attack Zuko like that when he hadn't offered them any harm?

"Maybe Zuko and I should go start dinner," Katara said quietly, breaking the tense silence. "You two can stay in here for a while and…cool off."

Aang expected another outburst from Sokka about Katara not being alone with Zuko, given how protective he was over her, but to his relief, he just looked away from all of them.

"Okay," Aang said. "Okay, that sounds like a good idea. Thanks, Katara. Thanks, Zuko."

The two left the sanctuary without a word, the lemur scampering after them. Aang knelt down beside Sokka. "Are you okay? I didn't hurt you, did I?"

"No."

"Did he hurt you when he—"

"No."

"Okay. That's—that's good."

Sokka sighed. "Pretty sure I won't even have bruises. He knew what he was doing. Unlike me."

"Yeah, he's pretty fast."

"Yeah."

"I think you might owe him an apology."

"Hey, he's the one who pinned me to the wall."

"It wasn't a wall, it was a statue, and he only did that because you tried to hit him."

Sokka sighed again. "Okay, you're right. I admit that this time the Fire Nation was not the instigator of the conflict. I'll…apologize." Sokka said apologize like the word had personally offended him and his whole family. Aang smiled at him.

"I know that you and Katara have a lot of bad history with the Fire Nation. I'm sorry you both had to go through that. But Zuko isn't responsible for the decisions—or actions—that hurt you. He's just a kid, like us."

Sokka threw his head back and groaned. "All right, all right! I'll make nice with the mysterious, dragon-wrangling firebender." Sokka made a face at the thought. Aang just beamed. He was sure that Sokka and Katara would come around. He had a good feeling about Zuko, and his good feelings were almost always right.

After all, Aang was the Avatar. He was probably supposed to listen to his instincts about these things. Maybe he was just a kid, but Zuko was just a teenager. How dangerous could he be?