Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar or the song "They Live in You" from The Lion King, by Tim Rice, Lebo M., Mark Mancina, Jay Rifkin, and Julie Taymor.

Author's Note: This was requested by libowiekitty. It's a few missing minutes from The Southern Air Temple, when Aang is alone in the sanctuary.

They Live in You

Night, and the spirit of life
Calling Mamela.
And a voice, with the fear of a child,
Asking Mamela.

Aang wandered among the statues of past Avatars, as though they could somehow provide him with the answers he was seeking. He didn't understand. Monk Gyatso had told him he would come in here when he was ready, and someone would tell him everything he needed to know about being the Avatar. Was he not ready, or was there some key he was missing?

Using his airbending, Aang leapt up to see the images ranged on galleries above him. As he went further into the past, he could see the fashions change, and some of the traits that separated the different races from one another seemed to fade. He kept jumping from level to level until he reached the very first set. At this point, things had changed so much that it was impossible to tell from which nation the first Avatar had hailed. A person would have to count backwards in the cycle to figure it out, and Aang didn't have the time. It probably didn't matter, anyway.

Wait. There's no mountain too great.
Hear these words and have faith, have faith.
They live in you,
They live in me.

Aang sat briefly beside this first statue, pondering. How had the sculptors known what the Avatars from ancient times looked like? Although the air temple was old, Aang knew it wasn't that old. Were the oldest representations accurate at all? Maybe the spirits had guided the artists' hands through the ages. Aang could use some of that guidance right now.

He looked down from his vantage point at the dizzying circles of statues. Katara had told him that their eyes had all lit up when he'd gone into the Avatar State. They were all connected to him, and he couldn't help but wonder what their lives had been like. As he descended back to the floor, picking a random point and following the succession to the last one, Avatar Roku, he asked silent questions that might never be answered. Had they had friends like his? Had they ever been in love? Were they always as serious as they looked here? Didn't they ever laugh, or sing, or dance, or play practical jokes on people?

They're watching over everything we see.
In every creature, in every star,
In your reflection…
They live in you.

Aang stopped finally in front of Avatar Roku. Somehow, Aang seemed to be drawn to him the most. He was supposed to pass his knowledge on in some way, Aang was sure of it. But how? He heard a soft step behind him.

"Everything's packed," came Katara's gentle voice. "Are you ready to go?"

"How is Roku supposed to help me if I can't talk to him?" Aang replied with a little frustration.

"Maybe you'll find a way." It was amazing how Katara always seemed to have so much faith in him. He only hoped he could justify it. They both turned to the sanctuary door. She was right; they needed to continue their journey. If the answers he needed had been here once, they were clearly not there any longer. There had to be another way, and he would find it, with Katara and Sokka's help.

They live in you,
They live in me.

They're watching over everything we see.
In every creature, in every star,
In your reflection…
They live in you.

--

Member of the Boomeraang Squad: charleegirl, Jesus.Lives, Liselle129, Strix Moonwing, Avatarwolf, MormonMaiden, libowiekitty, Snows of Yester-Year, La Vixen de Amor, chocolatecoveredbananacheese, Aangy, and honorary member SnakeEyes16

Author's Note: The bit where Aang is wondering about his past lives relates to something that I noticed when the town of Chen in "Avatar Day" had the wooden statues of the three Avatars. Kyoshi and Roku looked so solemn, but the version of Aang had this giant grin. That just struck me as funny.

Review responses:

Vanille Strawberry: No, I don't think Azula is the maternal type. Thank you for saying you laughed; you were the only person who said that, and I did intend it to be funny.

TTAvatarfan: Yeah, that last chapter really took me a long time to work out, since I was trying really hard to express the way Azula might think.

Let's Just Say I Loath It All: I agree. Poisoned Doughnut of Doom used some Avenue Q songs in her story "Doughnut's Done it Again," and they were pretty bad. It didn't help that she mostly used them as Zutara songs.

SnakeEyes16: There is a song called "I Hate People" from Scrooge, but it doesn't really fit, partly because it ends with "Why? Because they all hate me." I can't see Azula ever admitting that. And I never expected her to actually raise the children herself. They'd probably be handed off to wet nurses as soon as they were born.