Author Notes: While the progression of the story roughly follows that of the show, many events are changed, arranged in a different order or omitted. This is fan fiction, after all.
Life seemed almost normal for Aang and his motley crew of young'uns after a week or so of settling in the Western Air Temple. Aang and Teo explored the Western Air Temple wholeheartedly, marveling at its massive size and unique structure, as well as the many unique rooms that even Aang had never seen before. Many were untouched due to the Airbending-only doors, though some were sadly broken down with burn marks reminding Aang of the fate of the nuns here.
"Race you down the Hall of Statues again," Teo tapped the Avatar on the shoulder.
"No fair, you have wheels and brakes. I'm not running into Avatar Yang Chen's statue for the fourth time!" Aang jumped onto the shoulder of his predecessor's statue.
"I wonder what it was like when this place was when the people were all here," Teo looked up at the serene face of Yang Chen, who oddly mirrored Aang in many respects though it was to be expected from the Avatar.
"I rarely came here, because boys from the South usually went to the Eastern Temple for anything. I met Appa there. The boys from the North were a bit like you, daredevil gliders that made the girls here fall in love with them. Look, it's Avatar Kuruk!" Aang pointed to a mural depicting the notoriously cocky Water Tribe Avatar Airbending what looked like a tornado of roses for a group of awe struck nuns. A similar but more serious mural depicted Kyoshi in full warrior garb and make up, in formation with two Airbender nuns also holding fans. Avatar Roku was conspicuously absent from the murals, as he had completed his training at the Southern Air Temple. There was a blank spot after Kyoshi, seemingly reserved for the next Avatar to train here.
"Kuruk trained here? If the Northern murals are correct, this place was girls only," Teo ran his hand over the foot of Kuruk's statue.
"Kuruk never cared for rules, he made his own," Aang came down to the floor. "I remember his life sometimes; the world was a much more peaceful place in his day. So peaceful that he never really had to do anything," he looked out towards the canyon. "Not like me, a 13-something kid who hasn't even learned Firebending. Kuruk challenged people to Agni Kais, for goodness sake! How can I top that?"
"You can do it, Aang. I'm not an Airbender or anything, but I know you're more than enough. My dad used to tell me that all the machines in the world were useless without people to use them properly, with heart," Teo tapped his chair.
"Fate thrusts you onto its sword, Aang," Katara popped out from behind Kyoshi's statue. "Teo, can I borrow Aang for a moment? We really need to talk about what to do next."
Teo nodded, waving to the Duke who was swinging from some vines hanging from the top of the next level.
"Okay, so where are the others?" Aang walked alongside Katara as Momo perched himself on his shoulder.
"Toph, Haru and Kuei are practicing Earthbending on the flat arena and they'll join us after practice. Sokka's watching them and Mitsu's out scouting the area from the air."
Sokka's hooting and hollering echoed in the chambers behind him where Aang and Katara were, but he didn't care. This was better than the Earth Rumble IV tournament, a mess of rock slinging and dust flinging unfolding in front of his eyes.
"Go Blind Bandit! Go Earth King! Go….moustache boy!"
"Moustache Boy? Come on, Sokka can't you come up with a better name?" Haru threw a small pebble at him.
"Don't blame the spectators, Moustache Boy! Watch your left!"
Haru formed a diamond shaped shield as Toph's earth wave broke over him. He replied with a boulder swing, which Toph easily crushed with her left fist. Both of them raised shields against a wave of Earth that pushed them back as Kuei entered the fray.
"That's great, your Kingship!" Sokka made faux Earthbending moves.
Aang entered just as the three Earthbenders entered their respective stances; Toph with her unique Mantis stance, Haru in the standard Mountain stance with his arms at right angles to the ground while Kuei had his own unique stance, arms spread wide and body arced low.
"Wow, you all look great!" the Airbender applauded. "The King is a great Earthbender, isn't he Toph?"
"Not bad," Toph remained in her stance. "Though I have no idea what he's doing."
"Hey, that's a Waterbending-like stance," Katara rubbed her chin.
"Mitsu said the King is pretty good at Sandbending, so it's natural that he uses that kind of move.
"I'm not Sandbending," Kuei smiled without breaking stance.
"Hey, something's up with the ring…whoa!" Toph was the first to fall fromm her stance.
"I don't understand what you mean- HEY!" Haru also broke stance, looking over the edge of the ring where the stairs used to be. Sokka was a small blue blip in the distance, screaming inaudible words as he grew smaller and smaller.
"We're off the ground!" Toph felt the ground underneath her.
Aang appeared on his glider, flying under and back over the ring. "Wow! The ring is hanging in mid air! Will you teach me that, your Majesty?"
"WHAT? We're hanging in the air! Help! I can't fly! I can't swim!" Toph called out to the helpless Sokka and Katara at the temple.
"Relax, Lady Bei Fong," Kuei adjusted his glasses and slowly swept his arms toward the temple. "And please Aang, it's just Kuei. A King is nothing without a throne and without subjects."
Haru, unused to odd ways of Earthbending could only sit and watch his king raise his shoulders and lower them slowly; docking the Lei Tai ring back onto the hollow, coin-like hole he had left behind. Toph scrambled for real ground, making Katara laugh. Kuei bowed to Haru, holding out his hand for Toph.
"I'm sorry, Toph. That idea just came to me a minute ago," he pulled her up. In an instant he felt her Earthbending resonate with his, the waves overlapping and clashing, covering them both. Kuei was suddenly propelled into the air, landing in a heap beside Sokka.
"She's a really sore loser, Kuei," Sokka chuckled.
"But I didn't beat her," Kuei shrugged, though he didn't notice Toph bushing from their contact.
"Your Majesty, I mean Kuei, I'm calling a meeting of yourself, Sokka, Aang and me. No offence to you Haru, but this is kind of a world-saving gang thing."
"None taken," the Earthbender bowed and ran off to join Teo and the Duke on the upper level.
"So what's the plan?" Aang sat down on a ledge overlooking the others.
"The new plan is the old plan," Sokka started, "You master all four elements, confront the Fire Lord before the comet comes."
"I swore I'd never use Firebending again after I hurt Katara. Besides, where am I going to find a Firebending teacher? It's not like we're going to run into Jeong-Jeong again, and every other Firebender hates me!"
"You have to learn Firebending, otherwise you'd never hold up in a fight against Ozai," Kuei took off his hat. "I saw it first hand in the Fire Nation capital when he used lightning. He didn't see it, but I had to use everything I had just to block his fire."
"Then you can teach me that earth conversion technique!" Aang shrugged, but the others shook their heads.
"You are the Avatar, hence you are a Firebender," Aang morosely repeated Guru Pathik's words. "I know…"
"People, sorry I'm late. There are no clocks or anything out here, I have no idea what the time is," Mitsu dropped beside his brother. Appa grunted beside him, annoyed that the one person in the party who could fly still wanted to ride on him for recon.
"You have to look at the big sundial," Aang pointed to a round pagoda on the other end of the temple complex.
"As we were saying, Aang needs a Firebending teacher," Katara brought the meeting back to order with a cough.
"I doubt those two old hags on Ember Island would teach him," Mitsu scratched his head though Momo came over and ate the bug that was bothering him.
"Jeong-Jeong isn't even wanted in the Fire Nation anymore, people think he's dead," Sokka rested his chin on his hands.
"The Fire Sage that helped us is in jail," Katara hung her head.
"My past lives can't teach me either," Aang felt a small but sharp pain where Azula had shot him with lightning.
The silence was like death itself as the Avatar faced deadlock. Without a teacher, he had no clue about Firebending and even if he did, he feared that uncontrollably burning down the world was no way to do it.
"I wish old father wasn't in prison, I was two seconds from breaking him out. He'd make a great teacher for you," Mitsu hung his head, remembering Iroh's smile from the Black Tower.
"Iroh escaped."
The gang got up and all assumed stance; the voice was one that had unwelcome overtones for half of them.
"What are you doing here, Zuko?" Katara readied a slap wave from the fountain water.
"Look, I know you're all thinking I'm here to hurt Aang but the opposite is true. I'm here to teach him Firebending."
"Yeah, right," Toph instinctively mind-grabbed the earth underneath Zuko as a precaution.
"I'm never having you as my teacher," Aang raised his staff.
"After all the times you've tried to kill us? Not happening, Scarface," Sokka raised his boomerang.
"Look, that was a different me," Zuko pointed to his newly grown hair, "Come on Aang, you're the one that once said we could be friends. And Mitsu, you called me your brother on Ember Island."
Everyone looked at the Airbender and the Heretic, but only Mitsu broke stance and nodded.
"You broke Old Father's heart," Mitsu sheathed his staff. "I would have killed you for that. His heart is like my own now."
"I tried to break him out during the invasion but he had already escaped," Zuko turned away from them. "He would have wanted me to be here, to…help you."
"What about Mai?"
"I wrote her a letter," Zuko realized the pen was actually wedged in his belt, "I hope she understands. Look, if you guys won't take me into your group, I offer myself as a prisoner," Zuko knelt and joined his wrists. "I know I've done many things, sent an assassin after you, but…"
A face full of water was his reply, with the boomerang whizzing over his head.
"YOU sent Combustion Man after us?" Sokka now drew his black sword.
"That's not his name!"
"Zuko, get out of here," Katara raised three bigger waves. Aang and Kuei stood still with only Toph breaking stance and Zuko sprawled all over the floor with only Mitsu approaching him.
"After all your lost honor and shame, you still send someone to kill Aang? You were right on Ember Island; you still have no idea of right and wrong!" Mitsu threw his hands up, a look of disgust apparent on his face. "Katara is right, get out of here and pray that your uncle is alive and well!"
Kuei came forward to restrain his brother, leaving a silent Toph alone behind the others. Zuko shifted his feet and scampered up the cliff stairs as he cursed himself for his poor choice of words. Mitsu got up to chase but Kuei held him back, shaking his head.
"Who was that?" Haru and the others came running.
"No one," Katara angrily returned the water to the fountain.
"Yeah, like 'no one' tries to kill us," Sokka sarcastically quipped as he picked up his boomerang.
Toph was unusually quiet, but then again she hadn't joined them when Zuko was harassing Aang from pole to pole, a constant thorn in his side. She had no grudge or pseudo-relationship with him as Mitsu did; to her Zuko was another person she barely knew. His heartbeat said he didn't lie, but then again his sister was a master liar; why couldn't he? Yet his voice was hesitant, the prince choosing his words as best he could, though Toph knew they were the wrong ones.
"Can you believe that guy?" Katara went to fetch the cooking pot.
"Yeah, he's all 'take me prisoner please!' Yeah right!" Sokka sheathed his sword.
"I am not having him for a teacher!" Aang crossed his arms.
"I…have nothing to say," Kuei looked at his brother.
Toph finally spoke, slamming her foot on the ground. "Look, you are all missing the point! Aang needs a Firebending teacher and we can't think of anyone else right now! One shows up on a silver platter and we all drive him away?"
"He's lied to us before, like he lied to me in Ba Sing Se about his mother. I believed it, too." Katara bent the water from the fountain into the pot as the Duke pulled out some rice grains from Appa's side pack.
"He wasn't lying," Toph and Mitsu said simultaneously.
"I am not having Zuko as my Firebending teacher, and that's final!" Aang took his glider and flew out to the other side of the temple.
"I can't believe it; I sometimes wonder who the blind one is around here!" Toph kicked at the ground and walked away from the group.
"Do you guys always fight like this?" Kuei scratched his head as Mitsu shrugged him off and flew in the opposite direction from Aang.
"When it comes to Zuko, we're all divided. Toph wasn't there when Zuko raided our village, or when he tried to kidnap Aang. I know I hate him."
Kuei took the grains and spread them in the pot, using Mitsu's tinderbox to start the flames. "Hate is a really strong word. Azula took my kingdom out from under me, and for some reason I don't hate her so much."
"Well, you should," Katara turned the water to steam and put a wooden spoon in the pot.
"I won't," Kuei rolled up his sleeves and started washing the rice from his newly made clay pot. "I hate myself for being so weak, but even now I don't so much."
"At least Azula is consistent," Katara broke open a packet of stock.
"Zuko is confused. I say you give him a chance," Kuei expanded the pot into a wok.
"It's not that easy, Kuei. I see the face of all the Fire Nation, thanks to the big burn scar on his face. They're the ones who took my mother from me, and I will never forgive them," she slammed her pot down and wiped the steam from her face.
"Who should I be angry at then-Mitsu? My mother died giving birth to him, after all." Kuei got up and cleared his hands of sticky rice grains.
"That's not what I meant. Childbirth is different. That wasn't his fault."
"It's no one's fault that they're born," Kuei placed his pot on the fire pit and put a lid on it. "Here, Aang's dish is simmering."
"Thanks for the help," Katara said dryly, staring at her reflection in the pot before shooting up suddenly.
"The Earth King can cook?"