Davesprite's spirit-friends waved him off with a smile as he floated away. He'd asked them to guide him to the nearest village, and thus it was time for him to move on. Heb would of course go on to share Davesprite's musical wiles with the rest of the spirits, and therefore rap would eventually be invented. After that it would go on to be revered as a concrete part of humanity's culture, and the world would be wildly changed due to Davesprite's actions.

What sucked however, was none of that was going to matter to Davesprite. His place was not in this world, HIS place was helping his friends defeat Lord English.

So Davesprite arrived at this village, the spirits disappearing as he approached and everyone turned to look at him. This place was NOTHING like the other village. That one had earth-benders, and was all earth-and-stuff. Davesprite didn't fucking know, he was new to this world, because he came from a universe where Avatar-The-Last-Air-Bender didn't exist, because the author didn't want to write characters who most likely would have either at least heard of the show or maybe even watched it.

So anyways he floated over and raised his hand- "Sup." he said, as a man garbed in a big blue coat walked over with a spear. "Begone Spirit, this is not your land." Davesprite shifted his sunglasses back into place, before replying. "Not a spirit, dude." The tall man was surprised- "Are you sure?" He asked, and Davesprite nodded.

The guy who is obviously of the water-tribe turned around and raised his spear. "Everyone, this man is not a spirit!" So not that THAT was out of the way, everyone began to walk over. "But what are you?" One of the cute water-tribe girls asked, because the Earth Kingdoms didn't have cute girls.

…

Jin, the cute Earth-Kingdom-Girl from that amazing episode of Avatar-The-Last-Air-Bender (Seriously, that episode was the shit.) just so happened to sneeze at the time of me writing this… AND NO LATER.

…

"A guy who got fused with a bird in order to save an alternate version of his best friend. That best friend specifically being the only version of his best friend that apparently gets to fucking matter." He folded his arms and grimaced as he spoke, confusing everyone for a full minute before the spear-guy spoke up again.

"Are you sure you're not a spirit?" He asked, and Davesprite sighed. "He just said he isn't, Algus." One of the girls instead said, before Davesprite could bestow unto this man just how annoyed he is by that question. Which in all honesty wasn't actually a lot. But also he doesn't actually get as many chances to tell people how annoyed he is as you think he would, so yeah, he was pretty much raring to go.

"So in short… You're part bird? Was it done to you BY a spirit?" Davesprite sighed. "It never ends-" He muttered, before answering her question. "I mean… KIND OF? Shit, it's a whole ass story. You guys got a bed around here?" Algus backed everyone away, since one of the most interesting things they're ever gonna see just asked for a bed.

So yeah Davesprite is tired and finally gets that bed. But instead of taking one of their probably very comfy but not-comfy-looking beds, he opted to build a nest in a tree, as everyone watched, and then proceeded to sleep there, making the bed-quest he was on entirely pointless.

…

Aang, after having walked through the ship for an hour, meeting all kinds of strange creatures and people, had found a spot in the ship that was particularly spiritually connected- "Ah, this should do." He says as he sits down and presses his fists into each other.

"Avatar Roku… Kyoshi, Kuruk- Yangchen? I need wisdom-" Aang spoke to his past lives, as he walked around in the weird dark world he goes to when he's talking to his past lives. Figures came into view, Roku with multiple of his other lives playing a card game that the author didn't feel like describing. "What-" Aang wouldn't say he was disappointed by this sight, but seeing them so lax and none-mysterious was kind of jarring.

"Aang." Roku was the first to speak up, 'cause of course he was. "In the ten-thousand years since Wan had begun the cycle, not one of us have ever seen something like this." Aang just gawked at him for a few minutes, before gesturing in a way that told Roku he still needed help.

Kuruk shifted in his spot a little, and spoke up next. "Aang, there is literally nothing we can do for you here. This girl you have met, she is beyond us, ALL of us…" He looked at the other avatars around him, then back at the ageless history that would eventually lead to Aang… "Our world, our history, our people. If you anger her, it could all cease to exist… The only advice we could possibly provide to you… Help her leave as soon as possible? Really, Aang, I'm disappointed to say, but we cannot help you." Aang sighed, he knew Kuruk was right. It was sad, but facts be what they may, there was nothing he nor anyone could do.

Aang sighed, composed himself, and smiled. "Thank you anyways. If the need arises, I will seek your counsel in the future." His past lives gave him a nod of acknowledgement, and waved as he left them.

Jade oversaw the construction team as they worked away at the sad-sack-of-shit they called a ship. Or so they would have thought, if it hadn't turned out Jade seemed to have a talent for this stuff. She'd been maintaining the ship with her powers here and there. The Carapacian Mechanics were able to teach her a LOT about the ship, they even scrounged up THIS specific ship's plans! It was under the dashboard on the command deck.

Katara and Sokka were amazed by every inch of this ship, they got to meet all of the amazing friends the Beta-Kids had met on their adventures. Katara especially had a soft spot for Nannasprite.

Toph on the other hand was kind of just bending the interior hull of the ship around, while checking everything out, until she met up with Aang and Jade again. "Oh hey guys." She said as she walked up to them. "Hello!" Jade greeted with a smile and a wave, while Aang sat there on the floor where he'd previously been meditating. "Hi Toph. I was just talking to my past lives, then Jade came in and we started talking about spirits and stuff." He told her as Jade rested her head in her hand.

…

Jin brought John into her simple kitchen, showing him around like she said she would. "So you have to burn wood to cook food, huh? On our ship, we just use electricity. Huge yellow battlecruiser." Jin thought back to earlier when she DID see what looked to be a large ship floating in the sky. It was also yellow, and much larger than any vehicle she'd ever seen.

"Right. I did see it. So you live in that thing? What's it like?" She asked as John hummed to himself. "It's kind of hard to explain. I could show you it tomorrow, after we've gotten some sleep." That one surprised her, she hadn't invited him to stay for the night- "Oh, well if you need to, I guess you could take one of the guest rooms." John however gave her a simple blank stare.

"What? No, I mean on my ship. I mean, I'm super down to hangout whenever, but I gotta check on the ship." And now she was just a little disappointed. But she also understood that he has friends of his own that he cares about. Then it hit her- "Oh! Duh. How about I come see the ship with you? That way I can get an idea of what it's like." John snapped a finger gun with a smile-

"There we go! Alright, yeah, you can totally see it." And so instead of staying the night at Jin's place, Jin decided she would stay the night in The Golden battlecruiser. On another note, they were doing a LOT of traveling around.

So they arrived at the top of the house, and John formed a bubble of air around her after telling her WHY he is putting her in this bubble. It's 'cause if he wants to get to the ship in any reasonable amount of time, he'll have to fly at high speed, like how he does when traveling between planets. So anyways it would be about an hour before they arrived at the ship, since John was very focused on her safety, he obviously would risk her safety for a bit of extra speed.

So anyways they finally fucking landed on the ship, where John found Nannasprite shooting the shit with Iroh. "Oh yes, one time I found Zuko singing in his room, he wouldn't talk to me for a week." The two laughed for a brief moment, as they reminisced about the children they raised. "Hey Nannasprite!" John walked up to the two of them, as Jin looked around at the huge ship- "Oh, John! I was just telling this nice man about you." She says as she floats over and Iroh follows.

Jin found that the ship was massive, it had huge towering spires sticking out of it, with what looked to be a big cubic building kind of to the side. Separated between them looked to be a runway, this thing must have been an aircraft carrier, though for now she wouldn't know what an aircraft is. So the runway really had no meaning to her whatsoever. I don't actually know if the ship has a runway, but I'm assuming it does because I like the idea of that. The deck was absolutely massive, she wondered if you could fit the palace right on top of it. Or you would, if it wasn't covered in all these huge domes with tubes sticking out of them.

"Hey John! What's with those domes! The ones with the tubes sticking out of them!" She yelled from across the ship, surprising John as he looked around, realizing what she was talking about. Nannasprite however gasped with an exaggerated look of endearment. "My little man's already bringing home girls, he's growing up so fast-" That made John stop in place, as a crack formed in his glasses- "We're just friends, Nannasprite!" He nervously told her, as Jin walked over.

"Besides, it'd never work out between her and I anyways." He reasoned as he gestured in whatever way with his arms that he would. "Why not?" Nannasprite asked as Jin finally arrived at THIS side of the ship. "We're from different universes, and we've gotta leave some day. It's not like we could take her with us." Nannasprite's one arm kinda drooped, while Iroh completely understood where John was coming from. "Why not?" Jin asked, and John was about to answer that one, but then the three of them realized who asked-

"What- WHY? Don't you have people you care about? Could you really so easily say goodbye?" John asked her. Jin leaned on her hip and thought about it. "I mean have friends, and a bit of extended family left, but otherwise I AM actually alone. Here or wherever… It's like you said, I'm super down for it." John looked at Iroh for support in this situation, but Iroh just kind of shrugged. "It's her choice." He said, and it only now hit John that yeah, there actually ISN'T any possible problem with her just coming along.

"John, it's not like I'm actually planning on going. I just wanted you to know that if, once it's time for you to leave, maybe I'll have reconsidered…" John folded his arms, and looked at the floor as he worked it all out in his head, before looking at her again. "Well. Maybe, I'll have to talk to Jade about it, though. Come on, I'll show you the rest of the ship." He told her, as she looked at the big tube-cylinder things.

"Hey John. What are those?" She asked as she finally pointed at them. "Oh, those are the ship's cannons, they're pretty cool. Huh?" He smiled at her.

…

Morning came along and woke Davesprite up, and he stretched all anime-cat-girl-like because of course he fucking does that. You know he does. "God damn I wanna eat myself rightnow-" He fell out of the tree and hit multiple branches full Total-Drama style, until he hit the ground. "Shit." He said as he looked around to find everyone staring at the sorriest sack of shit to ever climb out of a bird nest.

"You okay?" It was that same girl from earlier, here to help him up off the ground- He sighed and looked down, his arms drooping in a similar way as Nannasprite's from earlier. "Yeah. Hey thanks, but I have to leave. I gotta go find my ship." He says before floating into the air, the girl WAS cute, and he didn't get a chance to catch her name, before flying off. "But why?"

Did the game really make him fear this kind of connection? "Sorry about that-" He gave her that two-finger salute some people do, and flew away. He shot through the sky and flew among the birds, it was almost antithetical. It was never the bird that messed him up in such a way, it was that damn game. It gave a subconscious sense of dread his bro never knew he would need to be prepared for. Nonetheless he held it down, he suppressed every second of it, and over the great big ocean like he was dreaming of being just another one of the countless birds up there.

So anyways after that-

He arrived on the ship, and found John and Jade, they were sitting with a bunch of other kids he didn't recognize. So of course he did the only reasonable course of action, and while they were all sitting in this big shitty sharing circle, he poked his head out from the middle, and everyone of course screamed in surprise at this- "Sup." Everyone except Toph, obviously. "Who said that?"

"It was Davesprite. Hi Davesprite!" John said as Davesprite looked over at him. "Yes hello, I am Davesprite. Hey Jade." Jade was too busy having girl thoughts about Sokka, so she just kind of half-heartedly waved at Davesprite. Iroh arrived and saw the orange boy, knowing this was his one chance to dig into and see what was going on with this young man, see why his friends thought there was something wrong with him.

"So you gonna introduce me to your new gang?" He asked. "Oh right. So this is Jin, I met her while looking for you." Jin was even more uncomfortable, since Davesprite already reminded her of Zuko. "So this is Davesprite?" Katara asked, and he turned around to look at her, further disappointing Toph that SHE didn't get to see the fresh meat.

It only now hit Davesprite that he might have a thing for cute Water-Tribe-Girls. "Oh shit-" He flew back John stood up too- "Guys, make room-" Toph in turn stood up too- "Oh hell no, he's sitting next to me, I wanna know what he looks like!" She yells, 'cause she a cranky child. "Ah- Okay." Iroh and Zuko stood up and nudged around a bit so Davesprite could sit next to her, and she realized he had wings. "Wait. You have wings?" She asked, as Davesprite only now realized that his right wing decided to start existing again for whatever reason- "Oh shit, I do."

She smiles at him, and Davesprite realizes she's blind. "That's really cool." Jade's mood drops a little as she realizes her new sister is also getting kind of infatuated with Davesprite. "Toph-" Jade tried to say- "Yeah I am pretty cool." Not once in this little girl's life had she been hit with such rich IRONY. It was always Toph who would be all "Yeah I'm the best, I know." and be right about it, but now here she found her mood-kindred, Davesprite. "Who are you?" She asked, and Davesprite lurched up as she tapped his arm.

"Actually, I have to go. You guys have fun with your sharing circle, and you-" He points at Katara- "Call me." He points finger guns and Aang was damn near ready for round two-

…

The team worked away for hours as the kids had their fun. It was up to these old carapacians to get this darned thing up and running again, for whatever use it might serve those beautiful brats. So they toiled away every last drop of blood sweat and tears they had left.

…

"I'll be going too, actually. This old man needs his beauty sleep." Iroh laughed as he walked away, Nannasprite however, was well aware of what he was planning. For better or for worse, she wanted to leave Iroh to it, knowing this was where he was most needed.

"So we're really just waiting for you to get back on track?" Toph asked, and Jade nodded in reply. "Yep, as I said. I'm currently triangulating the position in my head, but once we get the computers back online, I figured I would try my hand at coding. See if I couldn't patchwork myself an algorithm that'll help me process all the information as I input it into the system through this Neural-Cortex-Linking device I made." She presented a metal hat with piston-powered arms attached to spikes that you could only assume would be used to inject into the brain, and take in information. "Now obviously since I'm still learning, once I first try it on myself, I'll have to decrypt the information in real time, however I was hoping Davesprite might be able to speed ME up personally. But that's neither here nor there. Either way, once everything is ready, figuring out where we NEED to be will be a piece of cake."

Everyone kind of gawked at her, and she knows why they're gawking, because they have no idea what the hell she's talking about. John got a bit of it, so did Nannasprite, but they were pretty much equally dumbfounded. All of this went right over Toph's little head, she had no clue what the hell her slightly-older (Because Toph IS a year older now.) not-sister was on about.

"In short, I give it about a week before I'm ready to try another portal, and a month before I can REALLY start charting a course towards my destination." Everyone was pretty much satisfied with that answer. At least knowing what the device does was kind of nice. "So then you're saying we have a whole week to hang out and get to know each other!" Sokka said, reminding her that she has a lowkey crush on this dimwit. Sokka looked at John and pointed at him, surprising the boy- "I choose you, John! Let's be fishing buddies!"

I almost wish I ass-backwards included Jake in this story. You KNOW Jake and Sokka would be best bros already. John'll have to suffice for now, though.

"Heck yeah! You wanna come with us, Jin?" He asked, and she stood up. Honestly, it was any excuse to get away from Zuko at this point. "Totally, fishing sounds fun." Katara on the other hand was not so cool about this- "You're seriously leaving already?" Sokka looked at her and kind of shrugged with a dopey look on his face. "Uh… Yeah? Kind of. I gotta get my bro on." John chuckled at that, surprised these guys had that word. "Man, I gotta introduce you to Dave someday." John says, as he walks over to the side of the ship. "Yeah, I should go get started on my brain-buster" Jade said as she in turn stood up too. In all honesty, they'd been talking for a long time, having woken up earlier than Davesprite.

And so everyone kind of just dispersed into the surroundings one by one. Katara figured she would follow Jade, see if she could help out any, while Toph went out on her own to return to her Metal-Bending-School, while John, Sokka, and Jin went to do what they had already set out to do… Which is, of course, fishing… And then I think that's about it, nobody else of any importance to be mentioned.

Zuko cries for a moment as the Author entirely forgets about him, before deciding he'll actually head off with Toph, since she's on the way to Ba-Sing-Se, and he really DOES need to get back to that whole overseeing the reconstruction of the great walls and the city.

YOU THINK I WOULD ACTUALLY FORGET?

…

Davesprite was inspecting Toph's modern art projects, the ones she made with the Ship's hull, when Iroh came in and met with him. "What is this?" He asked as Davesprite turned to look at him. "Not sure. Really warped the shit out of it, whatever it is." Iroh was never really one for harsh language, sure he might have been a little more hot-headed like his nephew in his earlier years, but it was never THIS bad. "I would surmise that it was our little metal-bender's doing." He offered, and Davesprite looked at it.

"Right, so she can bend metal too. I suppose that's part of the earth. Can she bend people?" He asked, and Iroh laughed. "Not unless they're covered in dirt." Davesprite nodded in reply. "Right. So what's up with you?" He asked as Iroh took another look at the little girl's mural. "I'm just a silly old man looking out for his nephew." Davesprite's pursed lips nudged ever so slightly and he nodded in response to that too.

"Yeah, I can respect that. Is this one of those- 'Daddy was mean to me, but Uncle's super cool' kind of things? I thought you and that guy with the scar put off those vibes." Iroh was surprised by this kid's honestly surprisingly accurate guess. "Yes, actually." Davesprite felt bad now- "Shit, I didn't mean it like- I'm sorry. His dad isn't DEAD, is he?" Iroh shook his head, confirming that yes, despite our best wishes, Ozai lives. "Ozai still remains. That young man is actually Fire Lord Zuko." The mention of Fire-Lord just ever so slightly managed to nudge them THICC eyebrows on Davesprite's head.

"So he's the Lord of Fire? Damn, that Aspect sounds dope as shit… Now I wish I was like, the Knight of Fire, instead of the Knight of Time, or I guess would've been- Anyways, short version. That sounds way better than being this." It became all too clear to Iroh just how much this young man was dealing with. Davesprite couldn't even stand being HIMSELF…

"You know, uh, Davesprite…" Iroh began, as they stared at the almost mesmerizing modern-art-display… "This makes me think of a bright swirling flame ready to burst." He said, and Davesprite pointed at him knowingly- "Right, Fire-Dudes." Iroh of course nodded to that. "Fire is much like the life of a creature, it burns until it finally fades away. And this one, it looks like it's ready to fade any moment now. But it's trapped, it's waiting for something…" Davesprite nodded in agreement, this all sounded pretty deep to him.

"Why'd you choose to hang out with ME? I'm Bird-Dave, I'm the sucky one with all the problems, dude. You'd be doing yourself a favor if you waited for the real dave to-" Iroh stopped him. "Please." He said, and Davesprite almost ran off again- "Don't say that about yourself. It doesn't matter who is or isn't real… Davesprite, I did not choose to spend time with YOU because I thought you needed help. I've chosen to 'hang-out' with you, because that is what I want." Davesprite calms down.

He sighs and looks at the mural again, as he forms his words in his head. "You're way too good at this. Fine. Where do you want me to start?" He asks as he pulls an emergency folding chair from his sylladex. Yes he has one, it's in case he needs to break it over someone's head. "Your friends, they told me a bit of their story here and there… I want to hear yours, from YOUR perspective." Davesprite nodded, and inhaled.

"Alright." He began. "My session started out much like the one my friends and I played. But there was another girl, she tricked John and led him to his death. MY John. After that, without John, we couldn't get Jade into the game… She died too, and for months I trained with my sister, as we ascended our echeladders and I grew further into my powers over time… I couldn't save my friends, and I even sacrificed my timeline and my sister so that I could go and save the buffoon you were talking to about half an hour ago." Iroh said nothing, only listened.

"After that, I dropped my cool stuff, threw myself into real-dave's birdsprite, and now I look like this. After that, I fought Jack, watched my big bro die, and now…" He places his head into his hands, and stops himself before he breaks down in front of this stranger any further…

"Davespr- Dave Strider, I believe-" Dave nodded. "I am so sorry." Iroh remembered his son, Lu-Ten. "Let me tell you a bit about myself-" Davesprite chuckled at that one. "I thought we were talking about me here." He said, and Iroh brushed it off- "Would you humor me?" Davesprite nodded, and Iroh continued. "Before I became who I am today, I was a powerful General in the Fire Nation. I was set to besiege Ba-Sing-Se, but it was my greatest defeat. It was where I lost my only son." That finally clicked with Davesprite, the boy who had lost everything, only now realized he was speaking to a man who had also lost everything too…

"And it has never healed, has it." Davesprite placed a hand on Iroh's shoulder, and he shook his head once more. "No, and it never will." They shared their pain and their sorrow for multiple hours, until finally departing, both knowing there was someone out there who they each could understand.

…

"So have you ever actually been fishing before?" Sokka asked, as John stuck the bait on the hook.

It was a bright and sunny day in the middle of the forest as they looked around. The forest was covered in tall trees, and green hills with a white-peak mountain in the background as they approached. The Forest's Center-piece: The great lake of whoever-and-whatever.

…

Katara lowered the helmet onto Jade's head, a little uneasy as she walked over to its lever to power it on… "Katara, I already told you, I'm the only one here who can safely test it." Jade told her. "By safely, you mean get stabbed in the head, and PRESUMABLY come back to life." Jade slapped her face. "Do you have any idea how lame it would be if I died here? I am one-hundred-percent sure I will be brought back." (Me here ready to write that story) But that wouldn't happen, instead Jade used her powers to slam the lever down without Katara's consent, kind of scaring her before being stabbed in the head by like, what, thirty needles? Give-or-take?

The muscles on her arms bulge under her sleeves scaring Katara, before she grips the arms of the chair, crushing them- "Okay, you can shut it off-" Katara pulled it up, and the machine released its grip on Jade's dome. She stands up and slightly-stumbles her way over to the computer, checking to see if her brain HAD any kind decipherable output. So far, everything looked pretty good as far as she was concerned. Specifically that she was getting ANYTHING, since this was her first time testing the machine in the first place.

She blinked slowly, very tired from the machine's effects. "KINDA' startin' to wish that thing killed me anyways." She said as she rubbed her head.

End of Chapter 4.

Thank you for reading.