The scene opens several hours later...


"Hey Aang wake up already," I said as I shook his shoulder. My arm was beginning to feel sore having him lean on my shoulder for the past few hours. I heard Aang let out a lazy groan as he forced himself up from his sleeping position, finally getting off of me.

"What time is it?" he asked me as he rubbed his eyes.

"Time for you to see Avatar Roku," I said as the small island, that we recognized came into view below us from when the dragon took us for Aang to meet his master.

"There it is! The island Roku's dragon took me to!" Aang shouted out, waking the rest of the group up that had also been sleeping. Appa landed in an area near the temple, finally getting a break from all the flying. "You did it buddy, nice flying" Aang said as he and I petted the giant bison as a reward.

"You must be tired," Katara said to Appa as she scratched the bison's stomach.

"No, I'm good" Sokka said as he stretched, misunderstanding who Katara was talking to, "refreshed and ready to fight some fire benders!"

"I was talking to Appa," Katara said to her brother while giving him a strange look.

"Well, I was talking to Momo," he said trying to find a way out from him looking foolish, which didn't work. While Brianna laughed at his stupidity, I focused my sights on the nearby temple.

"Come on guys we don't have much time," I told them as I started walking towards the building. The four followed me shortly as we walked up the rocky hill towards the gates of the temple.

"I don't see any guards," Sokka said after seeing that there was no sign of life other than the five of us.

"The Fire Nation must have abandoned the temple when Avatar Roku died," Katara said sharing her hypothesis with the rest of us.

"It's almost sundown. We'd better hurry," Aang said feeling a little bit anxious. We quickly ran into the temple with Momo flying over our heads and crept in the hallway. Katara had told us that the temple was probably abandoned, but even then it seemed that they all didn't want to take that chance and tried to stay as quiet as possible. Suddenly I heard faint foot from behind us.

"Wait, I think I heard something," Sokka said, hearing the noise as well and turned his head. I looked over to the doorway and spotted five old men wearing all red with strange pointed hats. I quickly recognized them as the Fire Sages of the temple.

"Shit," I cursed under my breath.

"We are the Fire Sages, Guardians of the temple of the Avatar" the oldest looking man said as he gave us a rather threatening glare.

"Great, I am the Avatar!" Aang told them happily.

"We know," he replied still not dropping his glare. Without warning he and two other Fire Sages beside him attacked us by shooting flames toward us. Aang blocked one with a small whip of air at a flame. While Brianna and I easily summoned earth and air shields that snuffed out the remaining flames.

"We'll hold them off, run!" Aang yelled to Sokka and Katara. As the two ran off, Aang and I both sent a wave of air towards the sages' feet making them all fall over onto their backs. Brianna broke off small chunks of earth from the ground with her feet and punched them towards the fallen sages, pinning their clothes onto the cold floor.

"I think we should run now," Brianna told us as she jogged into the passageway that Sokka and Katara had run through.

"No arguments here," I said when I saw the sages struggling to get themselves free. The three of us wasted no time and ran to catch up with our Water Tribe friends.

"If the Avatar contacts Roku, there's no telling how powerful the boy will become. Split up and find him!" I heard the leader of the Fire Sages shout to the others from behind us.

"Great," I muttered as I blew of strand of my hair from my face. We followed Aang to who knows where, and suddenly bumped into our friends that had come from a different passage way, probably having taken a wrong path.

"Follow me!" Aang shouted to the two of them as he continued running at a fast pace leaving us rather lost in the situation, but continued running.

"Do you know where you're going?" Sokka asked as he ran after us.

"Nope," Aang shouted innocently as he turned left into a passageway. Brianna and I ran after him and bumped into Aang as he had run into a different Fire Sage. The three of us quickly turn around and ran back down the hall we had come from. "Wrong way," Aang shouted as we had passed by Sokka and Katara again.

"Come back!" the sage shouted to us as he chased after us.

"Wait a minute doesn't this feel a bit familiar?" I asked Brianna as we continued to follow Aang.

"Hey, wasn't that the good sage? Oh what was his name?" Brianna asked as she tried digging into her memory.

"How the hell would I know? I don't remember any character's name that only appeared in the series once."

"Wait I think his name was Shyu. Well I'm pretty sure anyway," she said as we turned right corner, running after Aang.

"Wait, why are we still running away from the guy if we know he's on our side?" I asked her after I realized what we were doing.

"I don't know! I'm just following you two!" Brianna shouted just as we came to a dead end. Aang looked back frantically, as did Sokka and Katara, and saw Shyu run in after us, blocking our way. The three of them got into a fighting stance ready to attack the sage, while Brianna and I just watched not sure what to do.

"I don't want to fight you. I am a friend," Shyu told us calmly.

"Fire benders are not our friends," Sokka said clearly not buying anything the man said.

"Isn't that a bit harsh?" I whispered to Brianna as the three resumed their stance. Suddenly Shyu knelt down in front of Aang, catching us all by surprise.

"I know why you're here, Avatar" he said with his face to the ground.

"You do?" Aang asked surprised. Shyu then got up from the ground and nodded his head.

"Yes, you wish to speak to Avatar Roku. I can take you to him."

"How," Aang asked suspiciously. Without saying anything, Shyu turned to a lantern attached on the wall beside us and turned it counterclockwise revealing a small hole. He placed his hand over the hold and fire bended into it, revealing a secret passageway.

"This way," Shyu instructed us as the door opened. Aang and the others looked at Shyu not sure whether or not they could really trust him. While the others were deep in thought I heard voices coming from down behind us, obviously belonging to the other Fire Sages. "Time is running out, quickly!" he urged us having also heard the voices.

"Come on guys, we can trust him" I told the three as Brianna nodded, agreeing with me. The three of them looked at one another and finally gave in, entering the secret passageway. I was the last to enter the passageway just before Shyu as he turned a knob closing the entrance door, before anyone could spot us.

"Thank you," Shyu whispered to me as he passed me to lead us to our destination. I walked up beside him and gave him a gentle smile as the rest trailed behind us. We began walking through the path that was surrounded by cavern filled magma that flowed beside us. As we walked I listened to both the sound of the hot liquid and Shyu explaining the certain situation of the temple. "Avatar Roku once called this temple his home. He formed these secret passages out of the magma."

"Did you know Avatar Roku?" Aang asked him.

"Aang, I don't think he's old enough to have met him" I said making him understand that what he said was rather insulting. Luckily for him Shyu laughed it off as he gladly answered Aang's question, despite already knowing the answer.

"No, but my grandfather knew him. Many generations of Fire Sages guarded this temple long before me. We all have a strong spiritual connection to this place."

"Is that how you knew I was coming?" Aang asked curiously.

"A few weeks ago, an amazing thing occurred. The statue of Avatar Roku's eyes began to glow!" Brianna and I looked at each other as we had a flashback of when we first arrived in this world, recalling that it was during that time when all the Avatar statues glowed.

"That happened when we were at the Air Temple. Avatar Roku's eyes were glowing there too!" Katara said having her own little flashback running through her head.

"At that moment, we knew you had returned to the world," Shyu continued to explain.

"If this is the Avatar's temple, why did the sages attack me?" Aang asked, not understanding what made everything change over the years he had gone missing.

"Things have changed. In the past, the sages were loyal only to the Avatar. When Roku died, the sages eagerly awaited for the next Avatar to return but he never came." As Shyu explained to Aang what happened in that past it became obvious that he felt guilty for his sudden disappearance.

"They were waiting for me," Aang said his voice filled with guilt as he leaned against a wall. Sokka walked over to him as he pat Aang on the shoulder.

"Hey, don't feel bad. You're only a hundred years late." Aang glared at Sokka obviously not happy with his method of cheering him up. Without hesitation Brianna punched Sokka in the ribs while I kicked his right hip making him fall over.

"You heartless jackass, how dare you!" Brianna shouted at the wounded warrior. Sokka rubbed his injured areas as he glared up at us.

"I was just kidding! There was no need to continuously hurt me!" he shouted back at Brianna. I glared at Sokka as he stood up straight.

"If you were smart you would know how far you can go with a joke," I told him as I turned back to the front and continued to follow Shyu. "Forgive us for interrupting," I said to Shyu "please continue." Shyu nodded his head as he cleared his throat to continue the tale.

"Very well, they lost hope the Avatar would ever return. When Fire Lord Sozen began the war, my grandfather and the other sages were forced to follow him." Shyu stopped in his tracks as he shook his head. "I never wanted to serve the Fire Lord. When I learned you were coming, I knew I would have to betray the other sages."

"Thank you for helping me," Aang said to probably the only loyal sage of this time. We continued to follow him as we came to a long spiral staircase.

"We'll follow these stairs to the sanctuary," he explained to Aang as we were making our way up the steps. "Once you're inside, wait for the light to hit Avatar Roku's statue. Only then will you be able to speak with him."

"When I see Roku I'm going to ask him why it was necessary to make a spiral staircase," I whispered to Brianna as she picked Momo up from the ground. After what seemed like hours we made it up all the steps and came to open hallway leading to a doorway. I noticed that the gateway leading to Roku's statue was completely sealed shut. I let out a devastated sigh disappointed that we didn't make it in time, thinking that maybe we could have prevented this little detail. It was then that Shyu also noticed the doors were closed as he gasped.

"No," he practically screamed out.

"Shyu, what's wrong?" Aang asked the worried Fire Sage.

"The sanctuary doors, they're closed."

"Can't you just open them with fire bending? Like you opened that other door?" Katara asked as Aang struggled to try and open the doors with force, which of course didn't work.

"No, only a fully realized Avatar is powerful enough to open this door alone." I saw from the corner of my eye Aang looking at the doors, wishing that he could be a fully realized Avatar. "Otherwise the sages must open the doors together with five simultaneous fire blasts."

"Five fire blasts, huh?" I heard Sokka say from behind me. "I think I can help you out." Sokka dug into his bag as he took out several materials for his master plan. He began explaining how the plan would work as he constructed five bags of the stuff. "This is a little trick I picked up from my father. I seal the lamp oil inside an animal skin casing, Shyu lights the oil soaked twine and tada, fake fire bending!"

"You've really outdone yourself this time, Sokka." Katara told her brother proudly.

"This might actually work," Shyu said with relief. Sokka finished tying the string to the last bag and placed each of the bags into the five statues' mouths which opened the doors. "The sages will hear the explosions, so as soon as they go off, you rush in" he warned Aang ahead of time as to what will happen.

"It's almost sunset," Katara said while holding onto Momo as the five of us hid behind the marble poles with dragon statues twisted around them. "Are you ready?" she asked Aang.

"Definitely," I heard Aang say by my side.

"Brianna, you know what to do right?" I asked Brianna.

"Yeah I'm pretty sure," Brianna said as she turned her head towards Aang and I. I watched as Shyu lit a small string with his fire bending, that connected all the five separate bags, lighting all five of the strings altogether. Shyu quickly ran behind the pole where Aang and I hid as the string started burning, getting closer to the oil filled bags. Our clueless friends anxiously waited for the results that Brianna and I already knew.

We waited for the explosion and I saw everyone eagerly waiting for it to happen. Even Brianna seemed into it like she was in her home watching the scene from her TV. Sokka on the other hand was holding onto his sister's legs afraid of the explosion, which he had suggested and planned out. I saw as the string began getting shorter until the flames finally come in contact with the animal skin bags. The next thing I knew large flames came from the statues' mouths as the entrance became engulfed with smoke. The sound of the explosion echoed through the hallways as the smell of the smoke filled the halls and entered my nose. Aang quickly ran towards the door just as the explosion hit and struggled to open the door, but turned to us dismayed. The plan had failed.

"They're still locked," he told us frantically.

"It didn't work," Shyu said with dismay. Aang fell to his knees as I ran towards his side, hoping that I could figure out a way to calm him down.

"Why won't it open?" Aang yelled out as he slashed the door with his air bending.

"Aang, stop," Katara yelled out as I restrained him from causing a scene "there's nothing else we can do."

"I'm sorry I put you through all this for nothing," Aang said to the group completely given up on seeing Roku.

"I don't get it," Sokka said as he rubbed the ash of the one of the statue's mouths. "That blast looked as strong as any fire bending I've seen."

"Then shouldn't we use that to our advantage," I told Sokka who didn't quite understand what I meant.

"She's right! Sokka, you're a genius!" Katara cried out.

"Wait, how is Sokka a genius? His plan didn't even work," Aang asked Katara like she had completely gone crazy.

"Come on Aang, let her dream" Sokka said obviously liking all the praise he was getting.

"You're right. Sokka's plan didn't work, but it looks like it did," Katara explained to them.

"Did the definition of genius change in the last hundred years?" Aang asked turning to Brianna and I. I just sighed and took Momo up form the ground and positioned him into the middle statue's mouth in order for our plan to work.

"You'll understand," Brianna said to Aang as she patted him on the back.