Chapter 12 There should be only one
Iroh awoke the next day to the noise of Nazca practicing firebending. He stood up and walked over behind a tree to see what the young child was doing. He saw Nazca standing there staring ahead with his fists clenched then he inhaled and then exhaled releasing a torrent of fire out of his mouth.
"Not many people are able to breathe fire," Iroh said.
"What other techniques are there to the art of firebending besides just creating fire?"
Iroh sighed, "I knew that you would one day ask to learn this one day or another. There is a dangerous technique based off of firebending called lightningbending. It is a form of bending where you must split the energy within yourself and when it rushes back to return to your body you create lightning."
"Can you show me how to do it?"
Iroh nodded, "Come with me."
They went to a clearing were Iroh took a solid stance. He said, "It is like I said, to generate lightning you must split the energy within yourself creating an imbalance. When you release the energy you provide the pathway for it to leave your body generating lightning. However I must warn you, when you create the lightning you are its humble servant guiding it and you have no control over its effect. You must respect it or it will destroy you. Fire itself is life and there is nothing to fear about it however lightning is pure power and fear. In most cases it is instant death and must be treated as such."
Then Iroh demonstrated. He pointed one arm up at an angle and the other one down at an angle. He then rotated them pulling them toward his body. As he did electricity began to emanate from his body. Hr then brought his arms together his fingers pointing at each other. Then he brought one hand up index finger pointing forward. As he did this a bolt of lightning shot out of his hand and hit a rock surface fifty feet away exploding as it made contact.
Nazca then stepped forward to attempt the move. He inhaled and performed the same movements as Iroh as he brought his hands together in front of his heart he felt the electricity crackling. He exhaled and pointed his finger forward. He felt the electricity leave his body heading forward. He felt it collide with the rock surface fifty feet away, exploding and shattering part of the rock face.
"Very good," Iroh said, "I have never seen someone master something so quickly. It was almost perfect."
Nazca smiled. He too had realized how quickly he had mastered the elements he had heard that it took years and years of practice and what had taken his past lives years to master he had done within a day. It was amazing and yet impossible.
"I really have no idea how I can master the elements so fast it just seems to come to me. Air should be a breeze," Nazca said smiling. The he sighed.
"What is it?" Iroh asked.
"I just realized that there is no way for me to master air with the only other person being the avatar and for some reason whenever I get close to him I feel intense pain then faint."
Iroh nodded his head thinking, "I believe that I can explain the fainting."
Nazca looked at him confused.
"It is unnatural for you to coexist with yourself and for this reason I believe that whenever you come into close proximity with your past life and you feel intense pain, this is your body's attempting to join together and become one."
Nazca then realized something, "The avatar state is all the avatars power in one being right."
"Right."
"So when Aang, the other avatar enters the avatar state I enter it as well, that was what happened when the moon died," He said talking mostly to himself, "So in that case if I enter the avatar state Aang's will also enter it and his body will become just as vulnerable as mine!" Nazca said worried.
Iroh looked at his puzzled his brow furrowed, "You become completely vulnerable when the other avatar enters the avatar state?" He asked.
"Yes, I kind of just pass out and my mind seems to go and join Aang's body."
Nazca then remembered what the man Roku had said, "If the avatar dies in the avatar state all the past avatars will vanish and the cycle will cease to exist. So if I die while in the avatar state, what will happen to Aang?"
Iroh thought about this and then said, "He'll lose his energy and die. However if Aang dies in the avatar state I believe you will live on just without the power of the avatar state."
Nazca realized that he could never go into the avatar state, if Aang passed out on his bison or in battle there was no way he would survive. Then he felt her. Fifty feet over coming towards them. Toph.
Nazca quickly got up and ran over to Iroh and whispered, "There's a friend of mine coming but I don't her to know that I was here okay whatever you do don't tell her I exist."
"Very well," Iroh said.
"Thank you for everything fellow grandmaster," Nazca said bowing.
"It was my pleasure," Iroh said returning the gesture.
Nazca stood up turned and began running away time to learn airbending.