"Thank you so much for that meat Katara!" Tucker exclaimed, patting his stomach contentedly. Sam rolled her eyes.
"This is really good Sam," Aang interjected, motioning to his bowl of vegetables Sam had prepared for the group. Katara had offered to cook for the meat eaters in the group and helped Sam with cooking the meal. Sam smiled.
"I'm glad you like it avatar," Sam replied. Aang smiled at her.
"Sam, call me Aang. We're all friends here," Aang told her kindly. Sam nodded.
"How long is he usually like that?" Katara asked, nodding to Danny, who was still meditating. Sam and Tucker shrugged.
"Sometimes a few minutes, sometimes hours. It changes," Tucker answered.
"Maybe we should try and bring him out of it," Sokka suggested.
"If Danny's really in the spirit world Sokka, there's nothing we can do to wake him up. There's no point in even trying," Aang explained. Sam and Tucker nodded.
"Over the years, me and Sam have tried a lot of things but nothing ever works," Tucker added.
"How did Danny even know about that spirit? Cai said she was the only person to escape to get help," Toph inquired. Sam and Tucker glanced at each other.
"You guys probably won't believe us but Danny sensed the disturbance in the village and brought us here. We were setting up camp here when that spirit arrived," Sam explained.
"When you say sensed… what do you mean?" Katara asked. Sam bit her lip and shook her head.
"It's hard to explain. Danny just can sense spirits, especially when they're nearby," Sam replied. Aang scowled, he couldn't do that.
Danny heaved a big sigh and slowly opened his eyes. Initially they were green but they faded to his previous blue. Sam and Tucker turned to him.
"Hey Danny, this is-" Sam began. Danny stood up and stretched.
"Avatar Aang, Katara, Sokka and Toph. Nice to meet you all," Danny interrupted. Everyone blinked in surprise.
"How did you know that?" Sokka asked. Danny shrugged and sat down closer to the fire and accepted the bowl of food Sam handed him with a grateful smile.
"I've been told a lot about you guys from talking to spirits," Danny answered as he began to eat.
Everyone glanced at each other, except Sam and Tucker.
"Sorry I was meditating when you came by the way. I was in the spirit world trying to figure out what to do with our angry spirit," Danny apologised and swallowed another few mouthfuls of food. Aang shook his head and plastered on a smile.
"It's fine. Did you find anything?" Aang lied, glancing at Toph but she didn't pull him up on it. Danny shook his head.
"I was mainly astral projecting. By the way, your flying bison is being cared for by the villagers," Danny answered. Aang's eyes widened.
"I have a feeling that I'll have to enter the spirit world properly to get some answers. What about you? Any ideas? The spirit said that its fire was going out because of a lack of passion and anger around these parts," Danny continued. Aang shook his head. Danny shrugged.
"Was worth a try," he muttered and resumed eating.
"So, er… why are you dealing with these spirits? I mean I'm glad that you're helping out but that's not exactly your job," Aang ventured once Danny had finished.
"Exactly, that's the avatar's job and you're stealing it," Sokka interjected.
"Sokka!" Katara groaned. Danny shook his head.
"I know that it's the avatar's job and relax, I'm not trying to replace Aang. I'm just trying to help since Aang is probably very busy dealing with the after-effects of the hundred year war that just ended," Danny replied.
"But why are you helping? It's dangerous dealing with spirits. I know of one spirit that can steal your face if you're not careful," Aang prompted. Danny nodded.
"Yeah, Koh isn't the easiest spirit to deal with, I'll give you that. And since you guys upset Wan Shi Tong neither is he. But I do what I do because the spirits asked me to," Danny answered.
Aang scowled.
"How did you know about Wan Shi Tong?" he inquired. Danny shrugged.
"I had a run in with him a few months ago. He nearly attacked me before I could talk him out of it. Now he'll only attack someone if they enter and then try and leave his library in the spirit world," Danny recalled.
"When you say the spirits asked you? What do you mean?" Katara prompted. Danny smiled sadly.
"It's a long story. One that isn't going to be easy to hear for Aang I'm afraid," Danny informed them.
"Why?" Toph asked.
"Because the spirits blame his absence for the chaos that's present in the world, in both worlds," Danny replied softly. Aang stared at him.
"They do. Why?" Aang whispered. Danny sighed.
"A hundred years ago, when you disappeared and the war began, the spirits just thought that the war would blow over. No one thought that it would last a hundred years. Humans have wars, the spirits knew that. They also knew that the avatar was still alive somewhere but since Raava was trapped with you and unable to communicate with the other spirits-" Danny began.
"Raava?" Aang interrupted confused. Danny raised an eyebrow.
"Don't you know how the first avatar came to be?" Danny asked. Aang shook his head.
"Oh, well, the first avatar, can't remember his name right now, but he was a thief. Back then, the spirit world and this world were much closer together. So close that they couldn't be separated. Lion turtles became the guardians of human settlement. They granted humans bending to protect themselves out in the spirit wilds to hunt and gather food. The first avatar tricked a Lion turtle to grant him fire-bending and he returned to his home without returning the power, breaking the rules. He was banished after he led a riot. He was allowed to keep his bending to protect himself. While in the spirit wilds he came across Raava and Vaatu fighting. He broke up the fight and Vaatu, spirit of darkness and chaos, escaped. Raava, spirit of light and peace, was furious with the first avatar and as an apology he offered to help Raava to find and defeat Vaatu. And so the first avatar journeyed to the other Lion turtles and mastered the other bending styles, air, earth and water. During the battle with Vaatu, Raava became too weak to defeat him and the first avatar offered to support the spirit and together they fought and defeated Vaatu. However Raava became permanently bonded with the avatar and when he died, Raava found a new avatar to replace him and the avatar cycle came into being," Danny explained.
"How do you know that and Aang doesn't?" Katara inquired with a frown. Danny shrugged.
"You ask enough spirits about the avatar and they start explaining things," Danny replied.
"You asked about me?" Aang asked. Danny nodded.
"At first it was out of curiosity but after that it was to keep an eye on how you were doing. I'll explain that better later. You won't understand unless I explain why I do what I do," Danny answered. Aang bit his lip but nodded slowly, giving permission to continue.
"Right, so like I was saying, none of the spirits could communicate with Raava and so didn't know where the avatar was. At first, the spirits didn't worry about it. They believed that the avatar would return before things were thrown out of balance and stop the war before it affected the spirit world. As we know, the avatar didn't return. Fire-benders destroyed the Air Nomads and damaged shrines in the Earth Kingdom, angering spirits. I believe you encountered Hei Bai due to that. Anyway, the spirits grew angry and without the avatar around to stop it, chaos seeped into the spirit world from the war in this world. They decided to try and fix that. They decided to create a second avatar to function until the original and Raava returned," Danny continued.
"Aha! So you admit to trying to take over Aang's job!" Sokka accused. Danny raised his eyebrows and gave Sokka a bored look.
"Sokka, I have never tried to replace Aang. I never thought I was the avatar and I never tried to be," Danny retorted.
"Ignore him, keep going Danny," Katara prompted, shooting a glare at her brother.
"Okay, so the spirits decided to make a replacement. But then came the issue of choosing what spirit would merge with the new avatar and how would they choose the new avatar? They considered using Vaatu since it was his counterpart that created the original but that was quickly discounted. The thing was no spirit wanted to be trapped in a human body. So they gave up on the idea. At least that was until a travelling spirit in this world got their opportunity. There was a massive storm in the Earth kingdom. A man, called Vlad, was hiking in the mountains when it hit. He was caught out in it. He couldn't find shelter and got hit by lightning. The spirit watched as the man died but caught his spirit before it could fade into the spirit world. The spirit returned Vlad's spirit to his body and Vlad woke up. He became the "new avatar". His own spirit taking Raava's place as the spirit required. This meant two things. One, he could die and that would be it. It wouldn't start a new cycle. But, despite being a non-bender, he acquired abilities. Abilities I share. I don't know if there's a name for them but they don't function in the traditional way. By which I mean, it doesn't use forms to work, it works by my emotions and thoughts," Danny resumed.
"Wait, so you were born a non-bender but now you can bend?" Toph interrupted.
"Yes and no. I can't bend air, water, earth or fire. But I can bend, I guess, my own spirit or soul into doing what I want. A little like your energy-bending Aang I suppose," Danny answered, nodding to Aang.
"How did you know about that?" Aang inquired, shocked that Danny knew about his energy-bending abilities. Danny smiled.
"You'd be surprised how much spirits know," Danny replied.
"But back to the story, Vlad. He woke up with these abilities and he learned how to control them. He asked around in the spirit world and learned that the avatar was still alive. Then he went straight to the Fire nation and to the Fire Lord at the time. I think it was Fire Lord Zuko's grandfather at the time, Azulon. Spirits don't really care about that kind of thing but the dates match up from what I can tell. Anyway, he promised to find the avatar for the Fire nation and in return he would be rewarded with ruling the Earth kingdom, in its entirety. Vlad spent years looking. He uncovered many things about the spirits such as Wan Shi Tong's library which I believe Commander Zhao learned about from Vlad's notes. However since not even the spirits knew where Aang was, Vlad couldn't deliver on his promise and he was executed for lying to the Fire Lord. So the spirits were back to square one. In fact now they were worse off since Vlad had helped the Fire nation to destroy and defile shrines and temples furthering angering the spirits and tainting their world," Danny explained.
"Wait, so where do you come in?" Katara asked. Danny smiled grimly.
"I come in after Vlad was executed," Danny answered. Danny took a moment to throw a few logs onto the fire before the camp fire burned out before resuming.
"The spirit world was in a bad way. The spirits needed someone to repair things between this and their world before the two worlds completely separated and destroyed each other. They began to look for a second "new avatar". This time they didn't take the opportunity when it arose. They knew how to create another but they didn't want a repeat of Vlad. And a few years ago, the spirits found me," Danny continued. Danny took a deep breath and glanced at Sam and Tucker.
"When we were kids, we used to play out in the surrounding fields of our village all the time. It was there that I used to practice my bending," Sam picked up the story.
"She means show off," Tucker interjected. Sam glared at him.
"One day, when we were playing. A freak storm struck. I made an earth cave for me and Tucker but Danny wasn't close enough. He got hit by lightning. As soon as that happened, we ran over to him. He wasn't breathing and his heart had stopped. I ran back to the village to get help," Sam resumed.
"I stayed with Danny and tried to get him breathing again. But I didn't know what to do. I was a kid. But then he opened his eyes and gasped for breath. He passed out almost instantly," Tucker continued.
"I brought his dad with me and he carried Danny back to the village," Sam concluded.
"The next day, I woke up. I only remember snippets of what happened but I wasn't exactly awake. I was astral projecting and after a minor freak out I figured out how to return to my body. Over the next month I learned of my new abilities and had a few slip ups where I accidently entered the spirit world. After talking to a couple of spirits, I learned what I was and why the spirits had created me. A couple of years ago, a spirit attacked our village. Enraged about a forest fire caused by the Fire nation. I managed to talk it down and assured the spirit that we'd do our best to fix the damages. I gathered our village and we went out and put out any lingering flames and planted seeds we found from other parts of the forest. We cleared the dead trees and the spirit thanked us by giving our village better crops than usual. But word spread about what I did. People thought that I was, well you, Aang. They thought that since the Fire nation killed the Air Nomads and disrupted the avatar cycle, that I was the first non-bender avatar," Danny explained.
Everyone was silent as that information sank in.
"What happened?" Aang asked, sensing that something bad had happened.
"The Fire nation came. A spirit warned me and I tried to protect my village and friends and family by leaving. Sam and Tucker followed me. But it didn't work. The Fire nation burned down our village. There were no survivors," Danny answered softly, staring into the camp fire.
There's Danny's altered back story. And what Danny is exactly.
Let me know what you guys think so far.
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Until the next chapter.