This is the last chapter in the story; it turned out pretty good

But…

I like this character and I want to do more with him; so please tell me what you think. Is he awesome? Does he suck? I want to know! REVIEW! Ahem, I mean, please review.

Chapter 4: The Gift

He began to tell his tale: "One day sixteen years ago, a traveling sword master wandered into a village and saw that it had been destroyed by a Fire Nation raiding party. He saw no survivors; but just as he was about to leave, he heard a noise coming form the rubble of a building. Upon investigation, it was revealed to be a baby boy, not more than two months old. As he picked the boy up he was given a vision: he saw that the boy would be influential in the downfall of the Fire Lord and needed to be trained. The swordsman's own village had been destroyed so he had no love of the Fire Nation; so he raised the boy as his own."

"Did he really see all that?" asked Katara.

"So he claimed," replied S shrugging, "Well obviously that baby was me; but there was trouble almost from the start: due to my disability," he said gesturing to his eyes," "there was no way I could learn to walk since I couldn't open my eyes. So he devised the first pair of these," said S pulling out his glasses, "Once I had these I learned very quickly; from almost the time I could walk, I was instructed in the ways of swordsmanship. He taught me every martial art he knew; if he didn't know one, he took me to some one who did. Due to this, I am at the very least, proficient at almost every form of combat, not including bending, ever created. When I reached the age of eight, my master had me forge my first sword. At age ten I killed my first Fire Bender; when I was eleven I bested my master in a sparring match for the first time.

When I was thirteen, my master gave me this," he said taking the broadsword off his back and placing it in his lap, sheath and all, Katara noticed that it was extremly ornate. " it was his most prized possession, he had gotten it form his master who had gotten it from an Air monk."

"An Air Monk?" asked Katara, surprised.

"Yeah, it's purely ceremonial of course; but it's the finest sword you'll ever see. Then he gave me his jacket, also from the same Air monk, and said that if he wasn't back in one hour, I should run and get as far away from the area as I possibly could. And then he left, off to ambush a Fire Nation convoy."

"You didn't listen, did you?" asked Katara.

"Hell no! I was thirteen, of course I followed him! By the time I got there they had already taken him out. As I stood there in shock; one of the girls in the party came up to me; she said many comforting things and convinced me to go with them."

"It was Azula wasn't it?"

"Yeah; I was extremely confused about all this because I had been trained to kill Fire Nation troops all my life and now all I was getting from them was kindness! Eventually I came to accept them as my friends. So that's how I had gotten to be friends with Azula and ended up in the Fire Nation."

"Wow," said Katara, clearly impressed, "You had an incredible childhood,"

"No, I didn't," said S seriously, "It was lousy; from the time I could hold a sword, I was trained to be a living weapon, a killing machine; no one should have to live like that."

"So killing is second nature to you."

"Yeah, it is." He said with regret in his voice.

"Well, if you want to stay with our group, you're going to have to do something about that."

"Yeah, I know." said S, but said nothing more. After a few minutes of silence there was a rustling from the trees of someone leaving.

"You realize Aang heard every word we just said," Katara said, smiling slightly.

"Yeah, I meant him to; I knew he was there the whole time. Well, thanks for letting me vent like that; I needed to get that off my chest."

"No problem," she said getting up, "See you in the morning!"

"Night," he replied. his eyes lingered on her as she left then he resumed staring at the sky.

The group woke the next morning to find that S was still there; he was sitting cross-legged with a green and brown jacket in the colors of the Earth Kingdom spread out in front of him. He was in the process of transferring the contents of his Fire Nation jacket to the other one. Sokka noted that there were many weapons going into the many pockets on the interior of the jacket, including knives, shuriken, smoke and fire bombs and several other things. Katara noted that he wore a tight, black, sleeveles shirt; and black pants tucked into his boots.

"Hey," the swordsman said.

"Morning," replied Sokka rubbing his eyes, "What are you doing?"

"Just switching my stuff to my other jacket; I'm going to be traveling the Earth Kingdom so I'll need to blend in. Oh, that reminds me," he said rummaging through his bag, "I have something for you," he sid to Aang, he pulled out a yellow and orange jacket, "This was given to my Master's master by an Air Monk, I believe his name was Gyatso, since you are the last Air Bender I thought you should have it."

"Hold it!" yelled Aang, "Did you say Gyatso? He was my mentor! That was his?"

"I think so. Oh, he also gave my master's master this," he said producing the Air Monk sword, "It's purely ceremonial; they're both yours if you want them."

Aang's face lit up then got suspicious, "Wait a second, you're just trying to get back into the group; nice try."

"Okay look, Avatar boy, I won't apologize for what I did at the prison, but I promise from now on that I will only kill if I absolutely have no other choice."

Aang crossed his arms and glared.

"I want to help you guys!" pleaded S, "I want to see the world returned to peace! I don't want any other kids to become… what I've become..." he said looking at his feet.

Aang's expression softened, "Do you really promise not to kill anyone, unless you don't have any other choice?"

"Someone once told me that there's always another choice," said S a smile slowly spreading over his face.

Smiling also, Aang stuck out his hand and the Swordsman took it, "Aang," said the Avatar.

"Shio," said the swordsman.

"Well Shio," said Aang, "you can keep your jacket and Sword, I dont need them, but welcome to Team Avatar."

Well what did you think? Does this character make an interesting addition to the team? Tell me what you think!

do you like how this is turning out? tell me!

Until next time!