I warned you they wouldn't come nearly as fast, didn't I?

Never the Last
Disappointment and Contempt

"Are you quite finished?" On Ji asked in an annoyed voice. The blind girl just kept laughing.

"No... not...yet..." She managed to choke out. Finally, a few seconds later, she managed to compose herself. "Alright, I'm done."

"On Ji," Aang started slowly. "You do know that bending isn't something that can just be gained. It's a skill you have to be born with, and to be an Airbender you have to actually be a member of the Air Nomads. It's possible you're a Firebender, but..." He trailed off, probably to make a point. On Ji just sighed.

"Alright Aang, get ready for a shock. Sorry, but this is the easiest way to tell you this." And with that, she took a breath, and turned to the doorway of the room they were in to the outside. She relaxed her body, twisted on her left heel, and shot her open palm, pointed straight towards the door. The air followed most of her movements lightly up until the last sudden movement, which instead caused a massive gust of air to burst straight through the door. She made it a long gust so that not even the skeptical one could pass it off as random chance, and then brought her hand back in, releasing her breath as she turned around to a variety of crazy faces. There were Sokka, a man who could easily pass for his father, and the girl who had elbowed him earlier, all with their jaws on the floor. The Runaway was looking puzzled, wondering what the hell Aang just did and why, the little kid in the helmet and the guy with the ridiculous moustache had incredulous looks on their faces, the boy in the wheelchair looked... almost excited, for some reason, and the big muscular guy was just staring t her. As for Aang... he looked neutral. Almost as if he was in a state of shock. Slowly, he closed the distance between them and reached a hand up to touch her face, making sure she was real, that she wasn't a hallucination or a spirit in disguise. But no, she was real. A real Airbender, just like him. Impossible but at the same time so real. Then, out of the blue, he reached out and hugged her, held her tight and never wanted to let her go for fear that she may just disappear. Not that she minded at all. She just let him embrace her until the shock finally wore off, and he let go, to her great dissapointment. He stared at her for a few more seconds, before letting out a shaky whisper.

"How? How are you here?" He stammered out. "I thought... I thought that..." On Ji smiled sadly.

"Well we're called the Air Nomads for a reason, Aang. Did you really think they were all in the Temples when the Fire Nation launched their attacks? They've just been in hiding for the past century, and really well too, I didn't even know who I was until after you showed up and my Gran went ballistic. She told me all about it and taught me Airbending... until she died. But since then I felt like I just had to find you, be trained by you. The last true master Airbender. Most of the old ones are already dead, and I don't know any of the other young ones, so if I want to master Airbending, it has to be you. So I ask you again. Will you take me as your student?" She bowed again, this time a proper Air bow. Aang was still speechless beyond barely comprehensible babbling, and took a moment to center himself. When he had, he took on a solemn face, and returned her bow.

"On Ji, it would be my honor to teach you. I will take you as my student." Once again, various reactions popped up amongst the crowd. Sokka, for one, looked mortified, as if this had somehow messed up his grand plan for everything, the Runaway (On Ji made another mental note, learn her real name and everyone else's) looked downright pissed for some reason, the three unidentified people still had incredulous looks, the older man who looked a bit like Sokka seemed to be evaluating her while the girl who'd elbowed said teenager just smiled knowingly, as if she knew something about her (not hard to figure out what). The big guy just looked bored with all the formalities.

"Aang," Sokka started. "I realize how important this must be for you, the whole "keeping your gift alive" thing, but can it please wait until after we've ended this war that's been going on for a century now? You still need to master Firebending, and we're running on an ultimatum." Aang immediately shot him a death glare, but the blind girl cut in before he could speak.

"Not to mention you need to keep your Earthbending in perfect shape." Aang turned his glare to her too.

"Guys, I don't think you do get how important this is to me. I was alone, completely alone in the world for longer than I ever would have thought I could bear, and now I'm not anymore, and none of you could ever get that. You should at least kind of get where I'm coming from Toph. Weren't you alone too? If someone had told you there was another blind Earthbender who wanted to learn, wouldn't you be there in a hearbeat?" The girl, finally named as Toph, stayed silent. "I'm going to teach On Ji Airbending, and I'm going to start now."

"Aang... I can wait." Aang whipped his head around to On Ji, staring at her.

"But..."

"No," She interrupted. "They're right, there are more important things that need doing. I'll wait for you to save the world, and then I'll learn." She said quietly, mentally smacking herself with every word. "And besides, being near you is enough for me." She added silently.

"I..." Aang began, but he trailed off. "Alright. It'll wait. For now." Sokka and Toph nodded in approval at On Ji, and she instantly knew she'd earned brownie points with them. Having finally admitted defeat, Aang hung his head and went to a different part of the Temple. As the following bursts of orange light showed, he was obviously going to practice Firebending.

The week drew on and On Ji did her best to fit in to this group (the Gaang, she mentally labeled them. Don't ask where it came from), which she found both easy and difficult at the same time. Airbenders had never really been known for being similar in culture to the other Nations. Between their connection to the Spirit World, their food habits (she had always made excuses back home to avoid eating meat, and managed to get some more vegetarian-friendly food), and their mastery of the skies, they were definitely the wierd ones amongst the Nations, and that reflected in Aang's friends. Sokka, Toph, and Suki seemed to be fine with it, having clearly had become accustomed to her culture through Aang, as was Teo as he had lived in the Northern Air Temple, but the rest of them were completely detached from Air Nomad society, and it was more than a little akward trying to go through her proper rituals during the day with the odd stares she got. Still, she managed, and gradually they were beginning to accept it as normal. In the meantime, due to the fact that she had been wearing the same clothes for the better part of the last two months, Haru, the boy with the idiotic goatee, had shown her where he, Teo (wheelchair boy), and The Duke (the little boy who insisted that it was The Duke) found some old Air Nomad clothes consisting of a yellow shirt and pants with an orange shawl and belt (If you haven't figured it out yet, the same clothes as Aang's in the first two Books). Sadly, all of the gliders in the Temple were either rotted through or termite-moth food, but according to Teo his father would probably make one for her when they got him out of jail. There was also an absence of scrolls, and everyone suspected there had been some burning away of "the barbaric teachings of uncivilized lesser beings". And speaking of burning, Aang had been training himself in Firebending almost non-stop in his desire to master it. No one knew what had gotten into him, as he had always been so patient with his learning before, something about an accident during his first attempt at Firebending according to Sokka. But he was working hard, and everyone appreciated that. Meanwhile, Sokka was filling On Ji into his new invasion plan so far, and trying to fit her into it ("For the last time Sokka, I am not shaving my head and pretending to be Aang!"). However, at the moment it was incredibly half baked and relied entirely on luck. On Ji told him that.
"Well, it's still in the basest stages. The Fire Lord and Azula are going to be heavily on guard until Sozin's Comet returns and they win the war." Sokka replied. "But the luck thing probably won't change, it's saved our butts a lot of times in the past." And that was how On Ji lived her life now. War meetings, watching Aang train, exploring the Temple, watching Aang train, practicing what she knew, and watching Aang train (she couldn't help it, he trained shirtless dammit!). She also got to know Aang, since when they weren't training he stuck to her like glue. Until Katara and Zuko returned. Then that routine went straight out the window.

On Ji sat loosely, her legs folded across each other and her fists together. Her eyes were closed, and here chest moved slowly up and down as she breathed in. She was meditating, reflecting on her new life, imagining, as she often did, of a world no longer torn by war. One where she would no longer have to hide her true self. Where Fire Nation, Earth Kingdom, and Water Tribe could call each other friends once more. However, her meditations were interrupted by a loud noise outside, which sounded like a massive thump. Yes, a massive thump. Followed by a cracking sound but she passed that off as some crumbling rocks. Now having lost her state of inner calm, she stood up and went outside to investigate. She followed the incredibly confusing cooridors in the general direction of the thump, and half an hour later (yes, it took that long. The place is like a freaking maze, and On Ji hadn't even explored a quarter of it), she came out at the bison stables to what would become one of her favorite memories of all time. Her first look at a sky bison.

It was huge, twice as tall as her and at least three times as long, with six legs that would put tree trunks to shame and a beaver-bear like tail. It was covered in shaggy white fur, a brown arrow stretching from the base of the tail all the way to the forehead, and a pair of horns adorned his head. It was both terrifying and breathtakingly wonderful at the same time, and even knowing what it would look like, On Ji was completely unprepared. She stood in the doorframe, looking out at it (he, rather. This was obviously Aang's bison Appa.) from afar, somewhat afraid to approach him. Summoning her courage, she took a few tentative steps forward, and Appa suddenly turned to look at her, caution in his eyes.
"It's okay." She said, keeping her voice as calm as she could. She spun a small disk of air between her fingers and held it up where he could see it. "I'm a friend." Appa stared at the disk for a few seconds, and then padded over to her. She kept her cool, but inside, she was sort of terrified. The bison came to a stop directly in front of her, his head shifted down to eye level, and blinked before opening his mouth slightly and licking her entire body from her toes to her head with his giant tongue. He then took a few steps back, leaving On Ji half covered in saliva. She stood for second, wondering what the hell had just happened, before bursting out laughing at the ridiculousness of the situation. She stood there for a second trying to calm herself down, and finally got herself down to simply chuckling. "And here I thought you were going to eat me."

"Nah, he's prefers fruit to people." On Ji jumped slightly, spinning on her heel and almost blowing the speaker straight off of the cliff. She found herself looking at an all too familiar face, although she'd only met the girl once. The chocolate brown hair that came down to hips, blue eyes that sparkled in the morning light, absolutely flawless skin; this was Katara. Her fingers unconciously twitched and for a second she considered going ahead and letting loose a burst of wind anyway. "I'm Katara, Aang's Waterbending teacher. It's nice to finally meet you in person On Ji. Aang's been going on and on about you since we got back." 'Score one for me' "Well, after he tackled me in a hug I mean." '... okay, that's one for her.' Regardless, On Ji smiled.

"It's nice to meet you too Katara. I'm sure I've heard just as much about you." She said sweetly. Okay, maybe that was a bit of an insult considering how she'd been there for a week while Katara'd been back for maybe half an hour, but Sugarqueen didn't seem to notice, since she smiled back.

"Well, I'm sorry I wasn't here when you arrived. Sokka mentioned that you took a nasty blow to the head somehow, and he's... not good with medicine. He also said that you're still bleeding a bit whenever he changes you bandages, I'm worried it might be infected. Could I take a look at it?" The concern in Katara's voice instantly made On Ji feel incredibly guilty. Here she was, feeling bitter that Katara had Aang's attention so much more than her, and meanwhile Katara, a total stranger, was concerned for her well being. That was not what being an Air Nomad was about. She was supposed to avoid holding grudges against people and accept the way the world was. She was now thoroughly ashamed of herself, and promised to get to know her romantic rival, and be her friend. If Aang wound up with her, then she would accept that. Slowly, On Ji nodded.

"Sure. It has been feeling kind of funny." Katara motioned to a nearby fountain, and they walked over to it together. Katara sat on the fountain's edge, so On Ji sat down on the floor in front of her on her knees. The waterbender fumbled with the knot for a second, silently cursing Sokka and his damn inventive knot tying skills, before finally getting it open and pulling the gauze away. As soon as she did though, she swore in an extremely unladylike manner. "What's wrong?" On Ji asked, a little nervous.

"Sokka mashed up the wrong herbs in the poultice. You're extremely lucky you haven't become sick yet. This could take a lot of healing sessions." On Ji's eyes narrowed. 'Healing sessions?' Then she felt two things on the back of her head. One was that feeling you get when you can't see something right above you, but you just sort of know it's there, and the other was an extremely cool feeling, like water. Then there was the odd sensation of energy flowing over her head, and she realized that Katara had some sort of healing ability. How oddly convenient. The water and the energy were suddenly pulled away, and she could feel something else as well. "Okay, it wasn't as bad as I thought. I should probably do that a few more times, but I think I got our most of the impurities in your body. It's a good thing I got back when I did, this could've been a lot worse." The young Airbender's eyes went wide. She had no clue it was that bad.

"Th- thank you Katara." She stammered out. Katara, the girl who until five minutes ago she had hated, just pretty much saved her life. Lot of shame there. Lots and lots of shame. With quite a bit of gratitude mixed in. But mostly shame.

I don't particularly like ending it like this, but I'm not really sure how I would build on it without it bleeding into the next chapter, something I really don't want to do. You also might notice that I changed the chapter titles, so instead of numbering them I'm naming them.

Also, just to note, when Katara says "impurities", it's not referring to physical impurities like bacteria or poison, but energy. I'm thinking that medical stuff, as well as Katara's healing abilities, follow Asian, and more specifically Chinese, explanations of illness, specifically that it's caused by impurities in the lines of energy in one's body(think invisible veins). That's where both acupuncture and massaging as alternative medicines, they stimulate special points in the body which pushes out those impurities naturally. That energy is called chi, and Ty Lee fights by stimulating those points in a different way causing one's energy to move wrong, and can have numerous effects including disabling bending, rendering a person's limbs useless, knocking someone out, causing a person's limbs to react incorrectly (example, you try to move your arm forward and instead you pick up your foot), or even killing a person. Hope you enjoyed this little Chinese culture and fictional science lesson.