AUTHOR'S NOTE:
The events in the story do not strictly follow the order or outcome in the actual series; this is fan fiction after all. Plus some things like the Fire Nation Airships are anachronistic ,and that is on purpose.
"Now," the man dusted his arms off, "what brings you strangers into the library of the Great Rock?"
"Well, we were at the Great Spirit Library…." Aang began but saw that the man was gripping his head in anguish, and then hanging it as if in shame.
"You're the ones that made him take his entire collection back into the Spirit World? I haven't even finished reading the first collection he sent me! What were you people thinking?" he glowered menacingly.
"No wait, I'm the Avatar, and-"
"The Avatar?" the masked man looked up and down at Aang. "That is not possible, although I've heard stories…."
"Well, here I am," Aang pointed to the arrow on his head.
"The tattoo says you're an Air Bender alright. Now, where were you 118 years ago when the Fire Nation attacked?" the masked man stood, arms akimbo.
"I was frozen in the southern ice. Katara here and her brother thawed me out!" Aang was getting restless but the stranger seemed genuinely interested, rather than threatening.
Suddenly he found himself thrown towards a rack by an unseen force, while Katara felt too little water to bend and stood there, half scared and half curious.
"That was for the people of this town you should have visited, as Roku, Kyoshi and Yang Chen had. Now I am the only one left."
Katara looked around the library and imagined more people in the halls, birds in the windows and gardens with fountains. It looked a pale, desolate shade of what was before, with only the green crystals looking like they were still maintained.
"Are you satisfied now, stranger?" Katara folded her arms.
"Yes." He nodded and took off his mask. "Before you start asking me about what is in the library, Avatar you must look into these eyes and think."
Aang got up off the rack he seemed pinned to, although there was no air, earth or water pushing him back. The stranger took off his mask and looked right into Aang's blue eyes. The Avatar felt a chill come over him as the stranger's eyes danced with his own in a deepening madness.
"You're eyes … they're all yellow!" Aang looked in wonder.
"Indeed, even you Avatars haven't seen this since Roku's time." The voice sounded slightly different but had the same tone. It seemed familiar to Aang, although he had never heard it with his own ears. He felt some of his back hairs bristling, even though he was sure he didn't have any back hairs. It was as if some of his predecessors were speaking to him through his body. However, unlike other times his feelings were mixed, with an excited heartbeat meeting cautious, tense nerves.
"You are feeling confused, I understand. Don't be surprised, sometimes we were friends to you; sometimes we were your mortal enemies. Time is not kind to people who do not follow the same path. My name is Mitsu Ishihara, some people called my kind…"
"Heretics," Katara pointed at him, an ice dagger formed of water from her bottle. "Gran-Gran told us stories about you."
Mitsu turned around and looked at the Water Bender with interest. "What did your grandmother tell you?"
"You were Benders who turned from the natural path, Benders who tried to challenge nature itself. They were rejects from each Nation who experimented with forbidden energies. But they haven't been seen in a hundred years!"
"That is where you are wrong." Mitsu waved his arm and illuminated the room brightly, motioning for Aang to get up. Toph and Sokka's hurried footsteps could be heard headed for the chamber and it was only a matter of seconds until they too arrived.
"The ones born with golden eyes disappeared more than a hundred years ago, or rather people stopped being born with them," Mitsu moved a book out of its rack and to everyone's amazement it hung in the air in front of him, opening to a page covered in a drawing of a golden eyed man battling with a fan-wielding woman. His eyes were not merely golden irises like Fire Benders; but where other people had white in their eyes, they had a shiny golden hue. "The people who sired them, however still live in the Earth Kingdom. They are none other than the people outside this ghost town."
"The Sand Benders?" said Aang. "I thought they were Earthbenders?"
"Before we talk more, please come into my study. It gets boring sometimes, but that's when I've finished a book. I can see you're one of the friendly Avatars, the Air Bender Avatars tend to be more open-minded." Mitsu smiled, pointing to a smaller room at the end of the hall.
They walked past numerous tomes, collections and journals as they made their way to the study. Katara noticed that there were Fire Nation scrolls, Water Tribe scrolls as well as Earth Kingdom tomes in the library. Aang stopped and picked up a roll of paper that had a broken seal that said "Southern Air Temple" on it.
"That was written two hundred years ago by Kari Omoto," Mitsu dusted the scroll.
"The monks told me about him. They said he was a weird Air Bender who always tried new things, at least until he was expelled from the temple. I heard that he went the Southern Water tribe and died fighting Avatar Roku."
Mitsu greeted the last line with laughter. "That's what people thought," he said as he opened the scroll. "He was in fact one of Roku's greatest friends and followed him to the Earth Kingdom. Here, this is a new technique you might be interested in."
The scroll showed a golden eyed man in Air Bender robes in a rooted stance, with his hands in the familiar 'globe' position. The writing however showed that the flow of energy was opposite that of a typical Air Bender, leading to a black spot between his hands where an air bubble would normally be.
"The technique is slightly too advanced for you, Aang, but you can keep the scroll." Mitsu took his hand and led him into his study, a spartan room illuminated with a purple crystal and a singular yellow globe.
"Earth Bender, what is your name?" Mitsu turned to Toph.
"Toph Bei Fong," she took out her family seal.
Mitsu bowed low, until his hair nearly touched his knees. "Lady Bei Fong, it is an honor. I have been to your great house but once, but your parents only wanted to talk to my Sand Bender friends."
"Oh, he's bowing to me, is he?" Toph rolled her head, giggling slightly. "I get this all the time, honestly. But seriously, stop it. I'm running away from …I mean I'm not supposed to draw attention with the Avatar around."
"When you were little, your father donated something to this library. You can have it tomorrow. "The purple light dimmed slightly in the background, indicating the hour's passing.
"When you were born, Avatar, your monks came here and left this with us," Mitsu pulled out a papyrus scroll from a stack on a shelf. "You should treasure this, or at least read it once."
"What is it?" asked Katara, peering over Aang's shoulder.
"It's… my birth certificate?" Aang scratched his chin.
"Gyatso himself came here, according to the archives. Can I help you, dude?" Mitsu looked towards Sokka, who was, with great difficulty, holding up what looked like a metal rod propped up the corner.
"This thing is heavy!" Sokka heaved at the thin-looking staff, which clattered to the ground.
"It's made out of solid iron and titanium," Mitsu lifted the staff up with no apparent effort.
"Titanium?" Toph grasped one end of the staff, "That stuff is so heavy the only thing they use it for is making prison doors. I can't feel any earth in it either."
"Lady Bei Fong, this rod was once a prison hinge. I thought it would be better used as my personal …support."
Aang closed the certificate with a sigh, with Katara putting both hands on his depressed shoulders.
"What's up, Aang?" Sokka turned to his friend, who seemed as still as stone.
"I finally know my parents' names," he muttered and hugged Katara. "And why they named me."
"I know it is hard, Avatar but everyone has a right to know their parents. So what brings you here to Great Rock?"
"The Great Spirit Library sunk into the Spirit World," Aang put the scroll down. "We were hoping to learn more about Ba Sing Se before we got there."
"There's nothing about Ba Sing Se here, Avatar Aang. That city has a way of revealing itself to people who make it there," Mitsu crossed his arms and shook his head. "This is a library for Heretics, as people called my kind." He sat on his chair and leant back.
"We were always rare, but people supported us and some of us had families. In the end the Four Nations got together and decided to kick us out of every country and town they could find. Only the Earth King took pity on us and put us here. If you could call it pity…"
Katara looked at an Earth Kingdom map on the wall, noting that they were smack in the middle of the Song Yi now. "Where are all the other people?"
"Over time the golden eyed ones, the ones who learnt arts forbidden to masters of the Four Elements became less and less. People were born normal, not even being Earth, Fire, Air or Water Benders. People became more used to the surroundings and most of the folks here became Earth Kingdom citizens. The Sand Benders are the only large group left descended from these people."
"The Sand Benders don't have golden eyes," Sokka noted.
"The Sand Benders use Earth bending as their source, but Water bending techniques as their spirit with the breath control of Fire benders. On behalf of the Tribes of the Rock I also have to apologize for what happened to your Sky Bison earlier," Mitsu got up and bowed low.
"We've got Appa back now, and the people outside seemed quite nice. But I still want to know, why do you have golden eyes, and where are the people now?"
"The Fire Nation has repeatedly invaded the Earth Kingdom since Avatar Roku died. The people joined the Sand Tribes or left for Omashu and Ba Sing Se. The Tribes come here now and then, but there are no people left that actually live here. Except for me, of course."
"Why do you live here all on your own in the middle of nowhere?" Toph sat on the desk.
"The desert is like the sea. This place is like an island, except that Fire Nation ships can't cross the desert."
"Hey, you live here but you know about Fire Nation ships?" Sokka scratched his chin.
"We are in a library, big brother," Katara shot him a look.
"I was here when General Iroh besieged Ba Sing Se. That was the last straw for the other people, who left for the city or elsewhere. I was the only one who stayed."
"So what do you bend-"Aang saw Mitsu's hand cover his mouth.
"Can you hear that?" Mitsu picked up the titanium staff.
"There's some rumbling outside," Toph's ears perked up, "sounds like the Fire Nation have managed to cross the desert."
"Come on!" Mitsu pressed a button on the wall, letting it slide back wards until an opening let the sun through. There were howls and screams from men, women and children while whirlpools of sand were seen clashing against waves of fire. Five Fire Nation airships could be seen hovering over the town's outskirts, troops rappelling down like ants out of an ant-hill.
"You can use the town's well water," Mitsu pointed Katara to a cluster of wells and barrels just below them. "Lady Bei Fong, please take her down to the wells and stay within the town center. I take it you cannot see too well in the desert?"
"You know?"
"You're not the first blind Earth bender," Mitsu smiled, "It's looking bad out there, the Tribes are getting beaten!"
Toph created a rock slide on which Katara and she quickly moved down to the area Mitsu mentioned. Katara felt the familiar flow of water underground, although she wished there was more. Toph levitated some rocks as two of the Fire Nation airships arced towards them, fireballs already shooting toward the Library.
"I'm going down there to help Katara!" Sokka slid down and took out his boomerang, although the looming airships made him run behind Toph's rock walls moments later.
"You should glide above them, Avatar and pierce their other balloons with your Bending. I take it you haven't learnt to Fire bend yet, so use your native air-bending for now!" Mitsu handed him his Glider.
"How do you know?" Aang repeated Toph and Sokka's question.
Mitsu said nothing and pushed the young Avatar off the ledge, forcing him to open his Glider and barely lift off the ground. Aang fought the urge to curse Mitsu but zoomed towards the Sand Benders' last stand as Fire Nation raiders surrounded the traders' camp.
"I would have thought Air Benders were faster?" Aang almost fell out of the sky. There was Mitsu, right beside him but with no wind or glider. He seemed to be levitating himself with no support, something that Aang thought was impossible.
"How…?" Aang saw Mitsu charge towards one of the balloons, weaving like a bird in the mountains to avoid fireballs and arrows.
"Get your own target!" Mitsu called out as he caught an arrow. The troops on the ground, already fighting sand waves and other onslaughts were now faced with a foe that flew out of the sun. As he neared the ground the raiders closed in on him, hands outstretched with fireballs lit on their fingertips. Aang's eyes opened wide as Mitsu hovered above the ground and with a wave threw all of them back or into the Sand Benders. The arrow in his hand found its way into the nearest balloon while the other balloon disengaged. In the distance Toph's launched boulders had downed one of the battleships while Katara shielded them from the fireballs that were raining down from the other one. Sokka was holding his own with the few ground troops that had made it into the town center, although Sand Benders were arriving to back him up.
"Aang, your balloon!" Mitsu pointed to the remaining war balloon. The Avatar was still in awe of what Mitsu did and crashed right into the balloon, creating a rupture that let the hissing hot air out and sent the balloon's occupants begging for their lives as they plummeted into the soft sand.
"Well, that's one way to do it…" Mitsu and the Sand Benders shrugged. "The other one, leave it to me!"
Aang had just torn the war balloon's canvas off him when he saw Mitsu's staff hurtling towards the third airship. The air captain was howling Fire Nation curses as the staff tore right through the floor of the balloon and then the canvas above.
"Return," Mitsu raised his hand and the staff zipped back, narrowly missing Aang's head. Back in town, the second raider ship had been sunk by a massive Sand Bender wave with legs and heads sticking out of the sand being the only sign of any of its occupants.
"What did you just do?"
Mitsu smiled, "Something you should never try to learn. Back, to the library!"
The Fire Nation raiding party was now on the back foot as the last war balloon fell in a dazzling fireball, its air burner turned inwards. One poor soul had Toph's foot on his chest and water globes around his hands and feet.
"The Fire Nation will conquer you all! So says Admiral Chan! He's coming now with Rhino forces and a whole squadron of war balloons!"
"Shut up, maggot," Mitsu clubbed him out cold with the titanium rod. "This rock is older than you and your entire existence. Great Rock, take him into your arms and teach him the error of his ways."
"Admiral Chan is one of the Fire Admirals Jeong-Jeong told me about," Aang turned to his friends, "He's as dangerous as Zhao and maybe as Zuko himself! Mitsu, you have to get out of here before he levels the place! That guy doesn't listen to reason or even orders at all!"
"The Sand Benders are dispersing, but I'm not going anywhere until the library is secure. Wait here, Avatar."
"My name is Aang."
"Wait here, Aang," Mitsu leapt high into the sky with the unconscious Fire Nation soldier until he was a blip in the cloudless sky. The Sand Benders could be seen evacuating in all directions, with entire galleons sailing away from the Rock.
"Looks like you're not the last Air Bender after all, Aang," Sokka shielded his eyes as he tried to spot Mitsu.
"He's not Air bending at all, Sokka," Aang also looked on as Appa landed nearby, "It's a different kind of energy he's using, it feels like Earth Bending."
Katara's thoughts on the subject were interrupted by the screams of the Fire Nation soldier, hurled at an approaching object shrouded by dust. Mitsu surged downwards and hovered near Aang, a contorted look on his face.
"You were right about this Admiral; the rat's hired some Earthbenders and is coming this way with a small army! Toph, I will need your help and the help of your friends. Will you help save this library?"
"Now you're not so tough?" Sokka peered through his telescope, hoping to spot the Admiral and his troops.
"I can fight, but the days where we could hold entire nations at bay are long gone. I must protect the library like my ancestors did. I will need the assistance of the Lady and the Avatar. I take it your talents are elsewhere, or do we have two Water Benders?"
"Just one," Katara emptied a barrel to make a water whip, "but I'm not much use in a desert, and Sokka even less."
"Hey!"
"Then the Rock will have to help us," Mitsu looked at the giant monolith that seemed to frown. In the distance the bespectacled but sharp eyed Chan pointed the way for his Rhino squadrons and his Earth Nation collaborators, who were gliding on rocks through the desert like moving platforms. They were Fire Nation colony citizens, hence their allegiance was to the Admiral known as "Chan the Cold and Cruel." This was a raid into Earth Kingdom territory as he had done for years, but unlike Iroh Chan was more interested in wearing down the Earth Kingdom and terrorizing its people. He had a son in the Fire Nation that shared his views and would have been out here in the Song Yi had it not been for social engagements people his class were accustomed to.
"We have to move the foundations and operate the gears so the library can be buried safely under the rock," Mitsu held his hands out. "I'll move the gears, you two Earthbend the rock to make it smoother."
Toph pressed her bare feet onto the ground, feeling the soft and hard particles and the mechanism underneath the library. "I'm ready," she began moving earth.
"I'm ready too," Aang also pressed his hands to the ground, although he still had less skill than Toph at moving large amounts of rock. Mitsu made two fists and concentrated hard. The gears could be heard cranking and creaking, although the library was sinking ever so slowly.
"What bending are you using?" Aang felt the earth move again.
"The bending between bending!" Mitsu hollered over the massive earthen groans. "I'd tell you more, but we just buried the floor it was on!"
"Incoming!" Sokka nervously held his boomerang as the first Earthbenders hurtled over the dunes.
"Hurry!" Mitsu expounded more effort turning the gears as a fireball crashed into the fifth floor, now at ground level. "They're here!" he waved his staff to knock back two Fire Nation commandoes that had glided in.
"I'll buy us some time, Katara and Sokka, get in here!" Toph spread her arms and raised a giant wall of rock made out of the town rubble, slowly creating a dome over their heads.
"Toph, I can't do this on my own!" Aang yelled as he began losing his grip on the earth below the library. Earthbending was not his strong suit as it was opposed to his innate element, and the strain was telling on the young Avatar.
"You can let go now, the mechanism will take care of the rest," Mitsu caught the exhausted Aang as he let go of the final chunk of Earth that was in the way. The top floor was now barely above ground, and Mitsu lowered it gently until only the rooftop could be seen.
"As preserved as before," his whispered, only to have to dodge both rocks and fireballs from above.
"Damn, they found a hole!" Toph yanked the boulders out from under the Fire Nation Earthbenders.
"With this rune, I seal the Great Hall once more," Mitsu pointed to the metal rooftop hatch and wrote the character for 'close' on it, reciting a small spell. The character glowed in response and the rooftop now sunk below ground, miraculously covered by encroaching soil.
"I will not be denied!" Chan leapt into the fray, knocking Katara aside and kicking Sokka back as he tried to avenge his sister. Chan was not a hulking man but had broad shoulders and a serious look to him, with two large swords now in his hands. They were lit with green fire, his personal favourite as it tortured he Earth Kingdom citizens , green being their national colour. His troops and the renegade Earthbenders rallied behind him, surrounding Aang and his party.
"You have been denied," Mitsu threw a metal girder at Chan, who deftly sliced through it and began a charge with his men. Toph had barely raised a carpet of Earth when metal rods sprouted out of the surface of the town square, bending like snakes and jabbing at the soldiers.
"You…you're doing this, aren't you? You're bending metal?" Toph noticed Mitsu's glowing eyes.
"I read the book, yes," Mitsu twirled and impaled some of the troops with the rods.
"I can't feel the metal- is this pure, refined metal?"
"The same as my staff," Mitsu swung his staff and batted away a Fire Nation sergeant.
Chan was indignant, although the Avatar himself was now causing him problems. He motioned for his Rhino captain, who was left behind to bring forth a metal cabinet.
"They want to catch me or something?" Toph sensed the earthen fragments in the metal. "Wait, that's not a capture box…."
"If I can't bring your head to the Fire Lord, I will bring its ashes," Chan grabbed a rope and made a thumbs-up motion. "I, Chan of the Fire Nation will witness this from above!"
"A Fire Bomb!" one of the troops called out, vainly reaching for the Admiral's feet. "Sir, we're still down here!"
"Your sacrifices will be remembered, young soldiers!" the Admiral laughed out loud.
"We have no recourse; this device is made out of volcanic rock. It would take a Fire bender of great skill to even delay this thing," Mitsu looked over the device next to two nervous Fire Nation soldiers looking helplessly up at the sky and each other.
"Then we're getting out of here!" Katara clambered up Appa, whose fur had been slightly singed by the two battles but was otherwise fine. Sokka and Toph made it up while Aang hung on Appa's paw. The Fire Nation soldiers were also allowed on, much to Sokka's chagrin.
"Mitsu! Get on Appa!"
The mystery bender was locked in a prostrating position, head down towards the site of the buried library. A large pack was by his side, taken from a nearby hut.
"Mitsu, get on!" Toph called out.
Mitsu looked at the rising Sky Bison; with Katara extending her hand as far as it could go. "Goodbye, my dear Rock. Watch over the house of my people once more." With a heave he elevated himself faster than Appa could ascend, past the hole Chan had blown in the earthen dome. Seconds later a white flash could be seen inside the dome, then billowing smoke and raging fires.
"The library of secrets is safe," Mitsu sighed as he landed on Appa. "What is on my back is now all I can carry as my own," he looked ruefully at the Rock. "That was my home for seventeen years. A home that you almost destroyed!" he forcefully shoved the Fire Nation troops off the saddle. Two soft thuds on the sand could be heard afterwards.
"We're sorry about the library, Mitsu," Aang put his hand on Mitsu's back. "But we saved it, didn't we? You can come back another time and we can all pull it back up."
Mitsu let a smile wash over his face, "That is very positive of you, Aang. I'm sure the Rock will protect the remains of the town till next we meet it."
"Why don't you join us?" Toph took Mitsu's gloved hand, "Now that we're finally leaving the desert, I can teach Aang more Earthbending. You could be a great help- you know, with seeing it all and stuff?"
"I'd be honored, Lady Bei Fong," Mitsu bowed, "it's not like I have anywhere else to go... for now."
"I thought you told him to stop calling you that," Sokka punched Toph in the arm.
"I like the way he says it," Toph punched him back, only harder. "With respect," she grinned.
"As you wish, Lady Bei Fong," Sokka bowed mockingly as he pulled out a map of the Earth Kingdom. "We're here, and Ba Sing Se is north of us. We have to cross this one place called The Serpent's Pass," he pointed to a narrow strip of land wedged between two large mountains.
"The Serpent's Pass? That should be a challenge…" Mitsu overheard.
"Mitsu?" Aang tugged at his new companion, "Can you do something for me?"
"What would that be, Aang? We've only just met, you know."
"Fly with me and Appa," Aang looked down at the desert sands, which were slowly making way for hard rock and pockets of vegetation. "I haven't flown with anyone since coming out of the ice."
Mitsu nodded and leapt off the saddle, followed by Aang in his glider. Appa let out a sound that indicated interest as the two Benders crisscrossed in front of him.
"So, how do you fly?" Aang called out as the last parts of the Song Yi were behind them.
"I'm what could be called a Force Bender," Mitsu swept past Aang and added a loop for effect.