A/N: A much longer chapter than yesterday's! Please read and review! God bless!

Disclaimer: I don't own "Avatar: The Last Airbender."

A pair of closed doors with an intricate mechanism stood before them, untouched by the scorch marks that now marred the inside of the temple.

It had taken the two awhile to make it into the inside of the structure, Aang pausing every few steps in the courtyard to make a quiet statement about a set of bones here and there while Katara continued to hold on to his arm. The girl had to fight back tears as she watched her friend's eyes grow more lost and more lonely by the second, the usually bright silver coloring turning into a more stormy, clouded grey by the second.

The ambush had been similar to the one that was put into motion at The Western Air Temple, although the both of them agreed that this one must have taken a great deal of more planning and strategy. Not a sound could be heard, the wind whistling faintly as it wrapped around the two lone figures in the middle of the open space. Ash stuck to the bottoms of their shoes as they trudged on, Katara keeping an eye on the expressions on Aang's face as he continued along.

She expected him to cry, to turn his back from the scene and pull her towards the exit, but he didn't do either of those things. Aang's shoulders slumped forward, but he did not turn his face away from the remains of scorched skin and dried bones. He didn't even cringe when he saw a pile of skeletons stacked on top of one another, skin completely burned off after being set on fire. It was as though he was trying to commit it all to memory, no matter how morbid it all was.

But Aang wasn't trying to commit it to memory, he didn't want to remember any of the things he was seeing in that moment. But he couldn't look away. The downfall of his people was due to the Fire Nation's hatred of him, of the Avatar. Internally, the teenage boy was trying to torture himself for what he had caused. He couldn't unsee what he was seeing, because he deserved to see it. It was all his fault.

When they had finally made it into the set of temples, they were met with a similar sight. There were no Fire Nation soldiers anywhere to be seen, but they had permanently left their marks within the structure. Scorch marks and ash here, bones and burned flesh there, it was becoming familiar to the two airbenders now.

For a moment, Katara did allow herself to release a quiet cry. Her thoughts had returned to her mother who was probably lying on the floor of The Western Air Temple in a similar fashion, and just the thought of that was enough to break the young girl's brave demeanor for the briefest of moments. She had hoped Aang hadn't heard her small, tortured whimper, but he had. Gently, he turned them around and began to lead them in the opposite direction. He didn't know where he was going, but Katara didn't deserve to feel the anguish he was feeling at the moment.

That's how they had ended up at the large, untouched double doors.

"Where do they lead to?"

"I don't know."

Katara had never been to The Southern Air Temple before, her people preferring to carve their great structures from the stone in which they had always lived under instead of this smoother style of rock. The cold, marble workings of the current temple she stood in were a complete mystery to her, just like the mechanism that rested on the door and kept it shut. The girl's head tilted to the side slightly\
with curiousity.

"It must lead to somewhere pretty special if it has a lock that complicated keeping it shut."

Aang nodded his head in agreement. Before he had left to visit The Western Air Temple, the monks had mentioned a great room in which held all of the knowledge he would ever need to be the next Avatar within. They were going to show it to him when he returned, but he guessed that wasn't going to be happening any time soon.

He stared at the locks for a moment before it finally clicked.

"You have to be an airbender to unlock them."

His friend looked back at the doors where the mechanism was. Her eyes followed the tubs that lined the sides until she saw what he did. Then it finally clicked for her too.

"I see it now!"

The young Avatar took a few steps back and dropped down into a low stance, ready to unleash a great gust of air, "Stand back , Katara."

"Aang, do you think we really should be going in there? What if it's a trap?"

"You thought this whole thing was going to be a trap and so far we haven't seen any firebenders around," He reminded her of this gently, raising his brows as he spoke, "This has to be pretty important if there's a lock that big on the front of it."

That and he kind of needed to see what was in there in order to take on the responsibility of the Avatar, something he had been reluctant to do since the monks had told him of his position.

The girl hesitated only a moment before stepping back and allowing him to use his bending in order to turn the three stones that rested in the middle of the mechanism. In turn the doors creaked open, their hinges rusted with obvious age.

The pair shared a look before they both slowly walked into the dark path that lay before them. Aang pushed the doors open a little wider to where light could enter the room and they could see. Both were floored by what came into their line of vision next.

Thousands of stone statues stood before them. They lined up in rows on the floor and extended high up to the roof along the walls. The room was enormous,
their footsteps echoing off the walls as the two turned around and looked upwards at the spiraling structure.

"Who are they?"

Aang shook his head, silver eyes rapidly passing over every face that lined the wall beside him, "I have no idea."

Katara's glance switched to the statues that stood on the same level as her, lined up into a neat set of rows with both masculine and feminine figures dressed in the clothing of their born element. Singling one out that stood at the end of the line, the young airbender walked up to him and glanced up at his features.

The stone depicted him as an old, wizened man. He had many a wrinkle on his face that signaled that he had many a story to tell. The robes that were carved around his body were those of the Fire Nation, silken and finely made. His long hair was held up on his head by a small topknot that was held in place by a headdress that instantly gave away that he was born under the element of fire.

"That's Avatar Roku."

Katara was brought back from her thoughts by Aang who now stood behind her, a large hand gently resting on her shoulder as he looked into the eyes of the statue as well.

"So then they must be set up in the order of the Avatar Cycle."

They looked down the row and sure enough, the Avatars were in order from water to earth to fire to air.

"I didn't realize there had been so many Avatars," Katara murmured, her eyes glancing over each face of the figures that stood before her, the cold marble radiating a certain power though each individual's spirit was not there.

Though, in actuality, they all were comprised within the airbender who stood behind her at the moment.

When Aang realized that, he recoiled from their hard, marble glares and turned his back towards the room, "I need some fresh air."

A furrow formed between Katara's brows, concern evident within her eyes, "Are you okay?"

Aang didn't turn around completely, but he did glance at her over his shoulder, a small smile on his features, "I'm fine. I just want to go look around a bit more."

Though the softness of his tone did little to squash the worry she had for him on the inside, Katara gave him a weak nod and turned back to the statues that stood before her.

Aang wandered down the halls, hands fidgeting nervously with his autumn colored robes. Seeing all of those faces, feeling that energy rising up within him, and gaining that knowledge within an instant and not having to ask questions, it was highly disorienting to him. He felt like he knew them all. But he didn't just know them, he had been them. It was all a bit too much for a sixteen year old boy to handle.

Meandering down the hall, Aang saw a small shadow moving slightly in the dull light of day. The young boy's heart rate picked up as his feet slowed down, every step becoming quieter as he crept up to the corridor in which the shadow was coming from. Back flat up against the wall, Aang peaked around the corner cautiously.

Shivering in a tight ball of fur and ash, laid a small, ring-tailed lemur. The creature had long white ears that were the size of nearly half its body, and large eyes that glanced nervously from left to right as its form continued to shake.

Aang had always had a soft spot for animals, being raised a vegetarian, so the sight broke his heart. The lemur looked so scared and lost. It kind of reminded him of what he was feeling at the moment.

"Hey, little guy."

The creature's ears went up at the soft sound of Aang's voice, the animal immediately on guard and using its lean legs to back itself up against the wall in a desperate try to put more distance between itself and the young airbender before it. But what surprised the creature even more was when the boy came up to it with no hesitation and picked it up, placing it on his lap and gently running his fingers along the top of his head.

The lemur tensed for a moment, fear and anxiety clouding its senses, but soon it began to release small purs as Aang began to scratch behind his ears.

"Why are you all alone?" The Avatar asked the creature with curiosity,
"Where are all your friends?"

Though the animal couldn't understand a word Aang was saying, the boy somehow knew that by the sad look on the creature's face, that his friends were gone along with Aang's.

Sighing while rising up to a standing position, Aang allowed the lemur to scurry on to his shoulder and nuzzle its head into the crook of his neck, "I'll tell you what. I'll be your friend, if you'll be mine."

The lemur chirped at his new master's proposal, eliciting a quiet chuckle from the tall, young man.

They walked along the corridors of the fallen temple for a little while longer, Aang mindlessly talking to the small creature as it attempted to listen to the conversation at hand. Though no matter what it did, it never fully could grasp what the airbender was trying to say.

On their way back to Katara and the room of statues, Aang wandered down another hallway, leading out into a small meditation room that lay halfway within the mountain. It had always been his and Gyatso's favorite place to go, so maybe visiting it would clear his head a bit more and give him a sense of direction.

But it did everything but that.

Moving the heavy curtain that covered the entrance of the makeshift meditation cave, Aang was stunned into silence.

Helmets and armor laid every where on the stone floor, the auburn of their material mixing in with the remnants of blood that stained the ground. The soldier's skin was still attached to their bodies, signalling that they had not been killed by fire, but by something else. That wasn't what caused him to stop though.

At the front of the room lay Monk Gyatso, his bones the only thing remaining of him besides a bit of the fabric from his usual robes and the necklace he always wore around his neck. It was obvious his flesh had been burned to a crisp, leading to his death.

Suddenly, Aang couldn't feel his legs. He couldn't feel anything. He was numb. Dropping to his knees, the boy released a strangled whimper, his fists clenching tightly as he pushed them into the ground by his sides. His sobs finally bubbled to the surface, the tears running down his cheeks uncomfortingly warm as they dropped from his chiseled chin and on to the floor beneath him.

He could feel something else happening within him, but he couldn't put his finger on what it was. It was as though his heart was breaking into a million pieces over what he had seen before him that day, what he was seeing at the moment. But it was more than that. He could feel the energy building within him as his anguish grew more intense, along with the rage he was containing inside.

That's when the statues began to glow.

Katara's eyes widened as she jumped a few steps back in fright at the sight. Glancing up, she realized it wasn't just the statues on the ground level who's eyes began to light up, it was every single one of them.

"Aang!"

The young airbender called out for him as she quickly exited the room, nearly tripping over her own two feet as she subtly used airbending to make herself go a bit faster. Running blindly down a set of corridors, Katara realized she had no idea where she was going, but inside, she knew that wherever it was she was running to was where Aang would be.

And she was right.

She reached the small meditation cave in a matter of minutes, nearly being blown off her feet as rocks and debris began to swirl around her. The stone structure caved in around the source of energy that was causing the disturbance, the wind picking up and knocking her down to the ground as she held up a hand to her eyes to shield herself from the dust and ash that was currently swirling around her.

In the middle of it all, was Aang floating in midair. His eyes and tattoos were glowing with a strange light similar to the ones the statues had been lighted with. Shocked and a bit confused, Katara took shelter behind a small boulder that lay near the entrance of the temple, her hands gripping on to its surface.

"Aang!" Katara yelled desperately over the whistling of the wind around her,
calling out to the boy who was now so enraged that he was blindly destroying his home, "Aang, come on! Snap out of it!"

No response came from him and the wind's speed only increased. Tears began to form within her eyes.

"I know you're upset, Aang!" Her voice rose above the sounds of the wind, her shouted words reaching the ears of the Avatar, "But we have each other! We've lost so much already, please don't let me lose you as well!"

The winds continued to whistle, but the rate in which they were blowing decreased, so Katara continued on.

"You're the only family I have now, Aang!"

Finally after those words were said, the young man's body slowly fell back to the ground. Katara ran up to him the moment his feet hit the stone,
her arms catching him as he wobbled slightly to the side, his eyes and tattoos returning to their usual color.

"What just happened?"

Katara's body was shaking as she hugged him tightly, both airbenders sinking to their knees and grabbing on to the other.

"I don't know," She mumbled into his neck, arms holding on to him for dear life, "I was in the room of statues when they began to glow and I walked out here and found you bending up a storm."

Aang's heart rate increased as he realized what had just happened. The monks had only told him a little about the power of the Avatar, but one thing they had mentioned had been the Avatar State. It was the accumulation of his past lives focusing their energy within him. It was something that was meant to be mastered, but also something that had a reputation of being hard to control. Aang had lost it, and in the process,
he had nearly hurt his best friend.

"I didn't mean to do that," He whispered into her hair, wrapping his arms around her waist and bringing her closer, "I didn't mean to get that upset."

Katara drew back from him, only enough so that she could look up at his face, "Aang, what was that exactly?"

The young man tried to turn his gaze away from her's, but she used a gentle hand to nudge his chin back in her direction.

"Aang, please. That was terrifying."

Guilt bubbled up within him, along with a strong feeling of remorse. He was going to have to tell her eventually. Maybe now was the right time,
rather than later. He feared the anger and blame she would most definately direct at him, but he couldn't keep it a secret forever. She was his best friend, and she deserved to know.

"You know how I told you I came to visit The Western Air Temple because I needed to check on Appa?" He quietly asked her, looking into her stormy eyes as she gave him a slight nod, "Well that wasn't the only reason I was visiting."

One of Katara's brows raised in confusion, "Than why were you there?"

Aang cleared his throat slightly, his eyes wandering to the stone pillars of the temple behind them, his gaze yet again avoiding her's, "I was sharing with the nuns the identity of the Avatar."

The young girl's eyes widened at his words, her hands grasping firmly to his shoulders as she asked with evident curiosity, "Who was it?"

The airbender took a moment to respond, his gaze falling to the ground as he tried to gather enough courage to mutter the answer.

"Me."

Of all the things Aang expected Katara to do, hugging him was definitely not one of them. He expected her to storm off, to tell him that everything that happened was his fault. He expected her to accuse him of hiding things from her and for her to run off without him. But of course, Katara would hug him instead.

The airbender's arms were around his shoulders, her face buried within his neck as she held on to him tightly. Aang had already put his muscular arms in return around her waist, but he couldn't hide the confused expression on his face.

"Katara?"

"Sh, Aang."

"But Katara - "

"Aang, be quiet."

The Avatar silenced himself, waiting for her to explode or do something that would reveal how she really felt about his given title. But she didn't do anything. She just sat there hugging him.

"I'm sorry," He mumbled into her hair miserably, trying his best to stomp down the guilt and regret that rose within him. Surely by now she realized that he was the reason she had no mother.

Katara pulled back from him an inch, her face close to his as she asked quietly, "About what?"

Aang quirked a brow at her question, his confusion growing by the moment, "I'm sorry that I'm the cause of all this."

The young girl scoffed slightly at his accusation, returning her head to his neck and holding him even tighter, "Don't be ridiculous."

"But Katara," Aang quietly argued, a tear escaping the side of his right eye, "I'm the Avatar. I'm the reason the Fire Nation destroyed our homes and people."

After feeling the moisture of his tear slide down her own cheek, Katara glanced up at him. Beautiful silver eyes looked up into his own with no blame or anger within them. All he could see was sympathy and comfort. Maybe even something else.

"I don't care," Katara stated simply.