Chapter Five: Forgive and Forget

Aang roared like a tiger-dillo and punched at the air. Fire shot out of his hands. He finished his firebending set with a practiced flourish and a great yell. Aang wiped sweat off his forehead. Since the war's end Aang had become lax with his bending and was out of shape. After his airbending lesson yesterday, and the first one two days go, Aang realized he had not been practicing his bending like he should. It was a humbling experience when Hana had out maneuvered him yesterday. Katara woke early everyday to waterbend (she was sleeping it off now) and invited Aang to practice with her, but he never did. Aang wished he had.

Aang was now practicing in a secluded courtyard, a tower on each side, and ready to airbend. He had already finished his earth and fire sets. Aang's nostrils flared as he raised his hands and began to move in a wide circle. As Aang turned he saw Teo watching him. His step faltered.

"Sorry," Teo said, "did I distract you?"

"Oh no, I didn't see you there."

"Yeah, I'm just watching you practice." Teo drummed his fingers on his armrest. "It must be so cool to be a bender."

"It is," Aang replied as he continued his move while talking, "but there's nothing wrong with not being one. Bending requires a lot of serious, quiet practice." Aang hoped Teo would get the hint that he wanted silence. Teo did not.

Teo nodded. "So what do you think of your class?"

With Teo talking Aang doubted he would get any bending done. Teo could be very talkative and was open about everything, from his past to his opinion. Even if Aang said nothing Teo would still give his honest opinion.

"Teo, can you--"

"They all have a lot of potential."

"Please--"

"But isn't Hana great?"

"Be quiet?"

"What?" Teo said, "Were you saying something?"

Aang sighed. Aang began to ask Teo if he could be a little quieter when other voices rang out.

"Avatar!"

"Master Aang!"

Aang turned around to see his airbending class running toward him. He would not have any quiet now. All five were loud, talking excitedly. Hana carried a pair of pale pink fans.

"Avatar," Yuan a tall, intelligent boy said, "Hana wants to start using fans to help with her bending. Is that allowed?"

Aang looked at his class. His pupils practiced everyday and showed more dedication than he did. They were also very curious, good traits in a possible airbender. "Of course Hana can use fans," Aang began, "Didn't Avatar Kyoshi use fans to help with her airbending? I told you yesterday that airbending is the most versatile type of bending."

"If something doesn't work, change it," chirped a short haired girl.

Aang nodded. That was what he had told them yesterday. In airbending if you were in a stalemate with an attacker, you would change your tactics. If one solution did not work you would use your cunning to devise another one. As someone once told Aang, if the wind was blowing on your left you would not push against it, like with earthbending, but move right. Aang picked his glider up. He spun it and used airbending to build up power. The others moved back.

"Unlike with other bending," Aang said while spinning his folded glider, "in airbending you can use other tools to help you bend. Fans, staffs, and even air swords. If it helps you, use it." Aang slammed his staff on the ground, sending out a massive wave of air. "I knew a monk who could only perform a cyclone if he had his staff."

One of the boys asked if Aang could perform a cyclone, and Aang told him he could. Everyone then asked Aang if he would make one. Aang told them no. A cyclone was dangerous, and the idea brought up bad memories for Aang. He remembered the great, destructive winds that would circle him while in an uncontrolled Avatar State.

"No," Aang said to discourage another request, "in airbending you never cause needless destruction. You show respect for all things, living or not." He added to get a reaction, "Like how you should treat the temple."

"What's wrong with the temple?" the short haired girl asked as Teo elbowed her in the side.

Aang wanted to snap his glider in frustration. Did they listen to anything he said? Aang wanted to scream an answer to the girl but did not. Aang believed it would not mean much if he told them. The monks said the best lesson was the one you learned for yourself. Aang sighed as the Earth Kingdom children went back to begging him for a demonstration and eventually wore him down. He made them go watch in safety from the doorway and windows of a nearby tower.

Aang began to spin his glider and move about. A column of air moved around him. The six onlookers 'oohed' as the air funnel moved faster and picked up anything not secured down. None of them saw Katara come down the tower stairs, stretching and yawning. The short haired girl was watching from behind the doorway and gasped when she saw one of Hana's forgotten pink fans blown against the wall. The girl reached out quickly. Yet she was ripped from the tower and spun screaming into the air. In a matter of seconds the girl was shot out of the cyclone into the air, over the courtyard wall, and over the side of the mountain. The onlookers screamed. Aang suddenly stopped the winds and propelled himself off the mountain to catch the girl.

"Aang!" Katara screamed as she ran out. "Aang!" Her eyes were wide. Katara turned on the others who had come up behind her. "What did you do to him?!"

Aang free fell. Through the wind that beat at him, he could see the girl below him screaming and flailing her limbs. She fell through a cloud. He used bending to pick up speed. When Aang saw a piece of rock that jutted out from the mountain, he landed on it and jumped off. He kept this up until the girl was a few feet below him. Her hair was blowing about her face and her clothes flapped loudly. Aang reached out and pulled her to him.

"Hold on and don't let go!" The girl wrapped her arms around his waist as Aang hoisted his glider above his head and began to spin it like a propeller. The pair rose until they were back at the temple. Aang touched down and was gentle as he moved the girl to the ground. He could hear Katara vilifying his students.

"Why would you want to see a cyclone? Were you not thinking?!" Katara threw up her arms. "If something happened to Aang because of you I'd make sure--"

"Katara." Aang walked over to her in shock. Had she been threatening them? Would Katara really threaten anybody?

"Aang!" She hugged and kissed him. Relief was etched into her face.

"See, they're okay." Yuan smiled but stopped when Katara glared at him.

"Aang, how could you do something so stupid?" Katara asked. "You had me worried."

"I'm sorry," Aang replied.

"'Sorry'? Is that all you can say?" Katara was getting angry again and Aang's class, glad she had turned her attention from them, ran. "I'd expect better decisions--"

"It's okay, Katara. I'm fine. No need to overreact. I mean it sounded like you were threatening them."

Katara waited a moment before speaking. "If anybody hurt you I'd make sure they didn't have the chance to do it again."

Aang paled. The thought that Katara would threaten someone shocked Aang. To him there was nothing worse you could do to a person than take their life. Everything could be solved with forgiveness. There was no other way. An awful thought occurred to Aang.

"Katara," Aang began weakly, "have you threatened anyone before?"

Katara said nothing. She was choosing the right words. She had to be honest with Aang. "When Zuko followed us to the Western Air Temple and offered to be your firebending master," Katara replied, "I told him that if he hurt you in any way--"

"No." Aang put his hand to his mouth. "No—no—no."

Lin lay under one of the library tables. The little girl was humming and holding a fig cake that trailed filling down her arm and face. None had fallen on the open book in front of her. The book was a collection of Fire Nation folktales, and Lin was flipping through the illustrations. If she had been able to read the characters along the pages, Lin would have realized she was looking the Legend of Avatar Nishi. Hana had often told the story of Nishi, the avatar who had united the warring fire states into one nation, to Lin as a bedtime story. Lin turned the page. The illustration showed a young Fire Nation girl kneeling in shock as a dragon wound itself around her. A noise startled Lin out of her book.

"What was that?" Teo rubbed his head as he looked at the ceiling.

"What was what?" Hana replied as she turned from the shelf she was organizing.

"It's nothing."

Katara's chastisement had sent Aang's class scurrying to get away from her. Teo and Hana had decided to go to the library in the Northeast Tower as there were a few books that needed to be catalogued and rearranged. The two also enjoyed hanging out in the library ever since Aang had built a way for everyone to reach the room. Hana stood on a ladder and placed the books. Teo passed them to her from the floor and he was now bent over a sheaf of papers on his lap. Hana grunted as she finally got a thick book into its proper place. This caused another book to fall off the shelf and hit Teo in the back of the head. It landed in a pile of manuscripts scattered about him.

"Spitting sea serpents," Teo exclaimed, using one of his father's sayings, "what keeps hitting me on the head?!"

Hana's gray eyes widened. "Something hit you again? I hope the ceiling's not giving. It'd be a shame to lose everything in here."

"Is that the only thing you're worried about?" Teo laughed. "What about my head?"

"You Earth Kingdom boys have head like rocks." Hana knocked on her head and clicked her tongue to make it sound like her head was hollow.

Teo laughed, glad that Hana had attempted to open up with a joke, and the two went back to their work. Hana wedged in another book causing the one at the end to fall on Teo's hand. Lin laughed as Teo yelled and rattled off nonsense. Hana stood embarrassed as she realized the source of Teo's injuries. Hana decided to stop shelving and help Teo catalogue. The two moved to the table Lin was under.

Hana checked a scroll for defects. "You know," she began, "it must be hard for the Avatar to see the temple like this. It must make him sad, remembering how great it used to be when there were still Air Nomads." Hana set the scroll aside and picked up a book. "It's how I feel every time I think of the island I grew up on."

"Whaddya mean?" Teo looked at her. "What happened to your island?"

"It happened so long ago, it's kind of vague."

Teo did not believe Hana's flimsy lie. He put down his pen. "If you don't want to talk about something just say so. You don't have to lie or say you've forgotten."

"Well," Hana sputtered under Teo's intense gaze, "I guess I don't want to talk about it."

Teo nodded. "Just don't forget. The most important thing I've learned is not to forget your past, good or bad. Bad stuff has happened to me, but I'm not ashamed of it. It happened."

Hana remembered when she and Lin had first met Teo after arriving at the temple. The first thing Lin had asked Teo at dinner was why he was in a wheelchair. Hanna had almost fainted out of embarrassment, but Teo was not bothered. He had laughed and answered Lin's question with a few sentences about falling out of a tree. It was not until later that Hana learned the entire story from Teo.

Many years ago, Teo had been in the tall tree by his parents' Yun Zhen repair shop when he seen the Rough Rhinos coming. Wanting to warn his parents, he had misjudged the wide jump to the roof and had fallen. Teo had woken up in the Northern Air Temple terrified, his entire body in a wooden brace, Yun Zhen destroyed, and his mother gone. Yet Teo thought himself luckier than most. He told Hana of Jet, a boy who had gone crazy after the Rhinos attacked his village and murdered his parents in front of him (something the Rhinos were known for). Hana had been shocked and embarrassed when Teo had told her this, but she knew he spoke from experience. Circumstances, good and bad, had brought Hana here and had made her who she was. She would not forget.

"I'll never forget my brother," Hana said meekly, "He was the one who took care of me and Lin after Cousin Ty Lee's parents disowned my family. My brother took care of us until the soldiers came to live on Azulon Island and forced him into the navy. Before I took Lin and ran away." Hana choked. "I don't even know if he's dead or alive."

Teo put his hand on Hana's. "I know what that's like. I have no idea what happened to my mom after the attack on Yun Zhen."

Hana looked at him quizzically. "Couldn't you ask your dad? I'm sure he'd know."

"He probably would," Teo replied, "I guess I never thought about it. I mean I just accepted that even though I loved her, she's gone." Teo did not mention the other reason he had never asked his father. Despite his talk of acceptance and being unashamed there was something Teo was still ashamed of. Hana did not need to know.

"So are you going to ask him?"

"I could."

Lin hummed unaware. She loudly licked her fingers and used her clean hand to turn the page of the Tale of the Lotus.

Aang looked at Katara in shock. He wanted to believe Katara was lying but he could tell she was not. "You threatened to hurt Zuko if he hurt me," Aang said his voice sad, "but you did it behind my back. Did you think I couldn't handle myself, Katara? That I couldn't deal with Zuko if he did do something bad?" The thought hurt. Did Katara really think he was incapable of handling his own problems?

"I'd never think that," Katara said, "I'll do anything to protect anyone I care about." She reached out a hand to Aang. "I know you're angry, how you must feel about this. Let's talk this out."

Aang brushed her hand away.

"Please," Katara pleaded, "I know you're angry at me right now, you have every right to be. But can you listen to me?"

Aang looked back at her. His face looked more sad and hurt than Katara had even seen it. "Why? I forgive you."

"What?!" Katara was stunned. "How can you have forgiven me already?!" By Aang's expression she doubted he had really forgiven her. Yet why would he say he was? Katara felt like she was being slighted.

Aang replied, "You did it only because you care about me and I know you're sorry, so I've accepted your apology."

"How can you have accepted my apology? I haven't even apologized," Katara said her voice gradually getting louder, "because I'm not sorry. I mean I feel bad about what I said to Zuko, now that I know he's a good guy, but I'm not sorry. I meant what I said." When Aang attempted to speak, Katara cut him off. She was on a roll. "And don't say you've forgiven me because I know you haven't! I know what I did violated almost everything you believe in and there's no way you could forgive me so fast!"

"Well, I do," Aang said evenly as he walked away from his girlfriend.

"No you don't!" Katara screamed. "I don't think you know what forgiveness means anymore. It's just a reflex, something you can say so you don't have to deal with anything. So you can say 'Oh they've ruined this sacred Air Temple but I forgive them' and not have to deal with how bad it makes you feel. Even though you haven't really forgiven anybody as you're still angry!"

Katara paused for air. Her ranting had left her flushed and breathless, but she was not done. "You can't deal with problems by running from them or forgiving them away. So unless you want to actually sit down and talk with me about this I won't consider it dealt with. And this time I'm not going to make the first move, you are." She paused. "So do you want to talk about it, Aang?"

Aang could have turned around to talk with Katara, but he did not. All that had happened left Aang feeling confused and weak and wounded. He did not want to deal with this now. He had to get away. Silent tears ran down his face as Aang left Katara and went into the tower. Katara stood alone in the courtyard, a breeze pulling at her hair and clothing. Her eyes glistened.

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