A/N. I had a very, very long week lol! For work, I had to look for pottery shards in fields… Yep. Not only long days, but exhausting ones at that. That is why the chapter took a little longer than anticipated. If the pace is a little bit off, I'm sorry, but I think the meaning of the chapter is alright! I promise to be faster with the next one!

"You abandoned us." His mother's voice sounded through the mist.

"You must have hated us." Gyatso's gentle tone was contorted in anger.

"You know what happened to us?"

"Not even buried."

"But oh, you just had to honour Mother Superior with a sky funeral. While we rot in the creek below the temple."

Aang inhaled deeply, trying to shut out the voice. He was sitting on the cold stone ground, legs crossed and trying to go into a mediative state. Normally he would be able to shut out most of the outside world when he did that.

He had run away at first. The fog was the place where the voices dwelled, were the horrible images lurked. So, he had tried to get away from it. But however far he ran, he didn't get out. Somewhere, in the back of his mind, he realized that this had to be a prison of some kind… And he could guess what he had done to deserve such a fate.

He had indeed abandoned the Air Nomads… He had let all those things happen to his people, to the people he loved so, so much…

And this was the punishment the spirits had imagined for him. The hesitation of the Avatars to come to his aid during his fight with Ozai hadn't been punishment enough, no… He needed to be purged from the world. That, he did know. He deserved this, fair and square… And yet, Aang couldn't help but ask himself…

Did this mean he was dead?

No… Surely not. That could not be. But he remembered the heavy punch in his back… And the metal point that had stuck out of his chest. His memory of that evening was slowly returning in full, and it made his stomach churn. Had something or someone tried to kill him? But that was impossible… No one had known he was in the town, except On Ji… And for some reason, he doubted the girl to be capable of trying to kill someone.

It had to be an accident.

"Accidents don't happen. Someone stuck a knife in your craven heart." The voice of his old mentor resounded, and Aang kept his eyes closed, lest he was to see Gyatso's skeleton once more. He had been surrounded by his failings in that mist… But not one had touched him.

So… he had been killed? Spirits… Katara. Katara had been there. She would have been there to heal him, like she always did! And if he was truly dead… he didn't accept that. No.

No way.

He didn't accept it. Gyatso had always taught him to accept whatever fate threw at him, but this, he would not accept. He had done so much… And if all that sacrifice led to him abandoning Katara, he would not accept that.

Katara deserved to be happy, and Aang knew that if he was… dead… That would not happen. She would go on a rampage, trying to find a way to get him back. He didn't care to how many spirits he would have to grovel, but he refused to be the reason that Katara would go down a path that wasn't her.

"You didn't die, you miserable excuse of an Avatar." That was another voice, one that sounded familiar, but as if it came from a dark corner of his memories. It wasn't the voice in his head that had tormented him all those weeks… But what he did hear was the slight accent. Just like the other voice. The accent of someone whose mother language was that of the Fire Nation, the language no one else seemed to speak but a handful of people, Aang himself included.

And that was interesting. As the voices around him whispered, he managed to shut them out and find himself in the silence of his own mind. The voice that had tormented him, and the second one that had just insulted him were Fire Nation, but of the old days. Zuko, Iroh or even Ozai had not spoken with the accent, and the people they had met during their travels through the Fire Nation had not even heard of the language. So that meant that the voices were from before the war.

And he wasn't dead!

That was good news… he supposed. But that meant that for some reason, he was stuck here. Then, he remembered what the first voice had said.

I will leave you here. Here where I dwelled for so long. Eighty long years. You will have to live with your failures, and face them all. That is the punishment you deserve… The last airbender. Finally, at my mercy.

Eighty years. Someone had been in this fog for eighty years, and it had been a punishment… And he was a Fire National. And he had been glad to have the last airbender in his grasp. As Aang thought about it, it began to make sense.

"Sozin." He sighed, still not opening his eyes. That had to be it. But the second voice? That was still a mystery.

"It is an honour to meet the great Avatar Aang." The sarcasm dripped from the old Fire Lord's voice. And for some reason, for the first time, the words didn't just sound in his head… But rather around him. As if he was standing right beside him. But Aang knew that if he opened his eyes, he would be met with the accusing glares of Gyatso's kind eyes, of the hatred in Jinora's eyes… And all those others…

So he kept them shut.

"I wish I could say the same." The airbender felt anger bubble in his heart. Forgiveness was a virtue the Air Nomads had lived by… but how could he forgive a man who had caused so much.

"Gyatso didn't teach you manners I see." Sozin's voice sighed, sounding old and tired, as if it was a personal insult to him that Aang had not been nice.

"Keep that name out of your mouth." Aang could hear his own voice rise slightly.

"Ah… Just like Roku. Just like all the others. You think I committed a crime, don't you?"

"Murdering innocent people is what I call a crime." Aang answered, not willing to be drawn into a conversation with the man who had killed the Air Nomads. But the alternative was listening to all he had done wrong.

"The Air Degenerates were supposed to forgive all crimes, however great. I see the lessons have not stuck with you."

"Air Nomads believe in second chances. No crime is ever too great that it justifies killing the criminal. But we believe that some crimes are worthy of punishment." Aang retorted, refusing to speak as if the Air Nomads were gone.

They are still alive Aang. As long as you are, then the Air Nomads are not gone. And in you is the future of your people. They will not be gone.

Those words, Katara had spoken them months ago, even though it felt like years and years. He remembered the words, whispered once when he was teaching her the language of his people, those first few weeks in the Earth Kingdom. She had been right. As long as he was here, he would protect his people's legacy. And certainly if someone like Sozin believed he had the right to judge.

"Ah… of course you would say that. Maybe Gyatso did teach you something." The old Fire Lord spoken Aang's mentor's name very carefully, as if he wanted him to hear him say it, "I guess you don't know what the Avatars had in store for me when I died, do you?"

That was a mystery to him. To be honest, Aang had never thought about it… But all people who died went to the spirit world that, he knew. But he had never been able to guess where in the Spirit World. Perhaps in a part closed off to him? Or perhaps he had just not looked in the right place? But he was one of the few people able to visit the Spirit World on his own accord. And if that was the case…

He could speak to those he had loved… And whom he loved still.

No… No. That was not right. Even if that was possible, the dead are best left in peace. And certainly if their peace was disturbed by someone who had caused their death…

"No. I don't." He answered thinly. Aang was beginning to think that the accusations of the mist were better than actually speaking to this monster.

"They imprisoned me in this fog. Roku thought it would make me think about what I did. Of course, he would do that, seeing how he lived with your people for three years. He really took the nonviolence of the Air Nomads to heart." Sozin sighed, but Aang could hear the actual smile in the man's voice. And not the kind of smile that meant he was happy or remembering fond memories. No… The smile the airbender could hear in those words was more of a what an idiot kind of smile. Pressing his eyes shut even harder, Aang could have sworn he heard the voices of the things tormenting him laughing.

"The fog, or mist, makes you relive all your worst failings. At least, those you think are your worst failings. Roku and the other Avatars probably thought it would make me think about what I did to the Air Nomads. What I did to the Earth Kingdom. But do you know what the mist showed me?"

"No." Aang guessed he was going to have to listen to this.

"You. For eighty years, I have had to listen to you. How you escaped, how you would come back and wipe out my people, threatening death and destruction on them. Of course, knowing you were an Air Degenerate, I doubted it. But, I'll admit, at the darkest of times, I believed it." Sozin spoke softly, clearly remembering the things that had happened to him.

Aang could help but bite his tongue. In his own darkest moments, when he had found out that the Fire Nation had killed his friends, his mentor and his family… Well, some dark part of his mind had thought those things. He wasn't perfect. He thought about revenge, about what he could have done. What the whole world would have expected him to do…

But he could not. How could he take out his anger on innocent lives? Those lives were sacred too, just like those lost by the ambitions of Sozin, of Azulon and of Ozai. Even Sozin, at this moment, didn't seem to understand that.

He had never blamed the people of the Fire Nation.

Standing on the rock overlooking the valley of the Fog of Lost Souls, Roku sighed.

"He is there, isn't he?" He asked the others, standing beside him. When Kuruk had told them he had felt the airbender lose consciousness, they had known. Sozin and Szeto had been working towards this. The whole situation, making Aang fear for the one person he loved most, the endless searching… It led him here.

There were only two ways to end up in this mist. One was when high-ranking spirits deemed your crimes so severe that you were condemned to it for eternity. And the other one was when you yourself thought yourself guilty of crimes, and then… Well, you found yourself here, torturing yourself for all eternity. Was that what Sozin and Szeto had planned? Make the young airbender so miserable that he thought himself to blame for the state of the world? For the loss of the Air Nomads? Because he was not…

If someone was to blame, then it was Roku himself… He should have seen it coming, he should have ended Sozin… But he had been weak.

"That is what the spirits living around here told me." Yangchen sounded angry. No, not angry… Rather, worried, "How do we get him out?"

That was a question that, to be honest, had no answer… How could one save someone from the prison they had constructed around themselves?

"Well… What does Aang blame on himself?" Kuruk spoke in a harsh tone, one Roku had come to associate with worry.

Well… That was going to be a lot, if the few conversations the firebender and the airbender had shared were any indications…

"But you didn't. You didn't kill my people… Why?" Sozin's voice was filled with confusion, "It would have restored your honour."

Aang couldn't help it, but he felt the corners of his lips point upward. Honour… Spirits, did that whole family obsess about honour? But then again… It was a whole thing in the Fire Nation. Zuko had been obsessed about restoring his honour. Even joining them in the Western Air Temple had been about restoring the honour of the Fire Nation…

"I don't have need of honour." Aang answered, truthfully. He had understood that little piece of truth when he had fled the ship, just after his coma. He had believed he had to restore his honour… But Katara had been right. She was always right. The way forward wasn't by keeping your honour… But by doing the right thing.

"True." Sozin's voice laughed at that, "No Air Nomad ever had use of that. All they did was stick their nose in everyone's business, thinking they could solve everything by talking about it."

"And your solution was any better?" Aang just had enough. The man, or Spirit, or whatever he was hearing, had insulted him, his friends and his way of life. No more.

"You wanted to make the Fire Nation the ruler of the world, and you did that by bringing fire and death wherever your ambitions brought you. You killed my people purely to make sure you had no one to stop you. Well, I didn't stop you, but my friends and I stopped Ozai. We stopped your ambition becoming true."

At that, there was silence, even if it was just a moment. Silence. He had not heard that since arriving in this mist… Did that mean that the ghosts of his past were gone? Without opening his eyes, the airbender stood up from his meditative position, inhaling deeply through his nose.

The air smelled different… As if in the distance, there was something burning…

Risking a glimpse through his eyelashes, Aang felt his heart crack, but at the same time, he opened his eyes fully. He didn't want to see this, but at the same time… Well, he had to see it.

The mist was gone, and he was standing atop of a mountain, in a landscape so familiar to him he knew every mountain, every rock and every star shining in the sky. In the distance, on the highest peak, stood his home… Burning.

Glancing the sky, the airbender saw what he had been afraid of so many months. The comet was racing in the sky, leaving a dark orange tint to the clouds of the night. Swallowing thickly, he turned his attention back to the Southern Air Temple. Before being stuck in the mist, he had been there… he had seen Gyatso standing at the entrance, demanding the reason why the soldiers were at their home… While herding the youngsters inside.

Now, he saw what had happened after…

"I was standing here a hundred years ago. Watching it. I send my best troops to this temple, knowing that if the Avatar was a boy, they would have entrusted him to Gyatso. Gyatso, always so annoyingly cheery, laughing at everyone and not caring who was hurt by his words." The voice was back, with a tinge of disgust this time.

"He never laughed at anyone." Aang answered through gritted teeth, "He never mocked anyone. Gyatso was a good man."

"He didn't understand the world. He never saw the bad in someone, and if he had, he would have seen you for what you were. A threat to him and the monks in this temple."

To that, Aang had no response… Because it was the thing he had thought for months… Ever since learning what had happened. If the monks hadn't cared for him, if they had announced him to the whole world instead of to the Southern Air Temple… There would have been a chance. If Sozin had known where to look for him exactly… Then, his people would have been spared…

"If you knew that, why attack the other temples?" He asked instead. He had to know.

"Oh… Simple. Your people didn't deserve to live in the world I wanted to build. Their soft words, their nonsensical beliefs. They had no place in my world." Sozin's words cut through him like a sharp knife.

The Southern Air Temple disappeared into smoke, and flashes of other images flashed in front of his eyes. A part of a temple falling into the canyon beneath it, while shouts could be heard inside of it. A green-roofed tower burning like a candle… Catapults raining fiery projectiles onto the courtyards of the Eastern Temple.

And then, other scenes… Fire Nation soldiers walking through a corridor, a wall smeared with blood, while one carried a handful of scrolls and the other an ornate candleholder used during mediations… Several drunken soldiers roasting a long piece of meat inside the hall of monks in the Northern Air Temple.

"Stop." He didn't want to see this. Not again. Was once not enough?

"No. You will watch your people die over and over again. That is your punishment."

The cries coming from the mist were so horrible and miserable Roku felt his throat tighten. Although he had been the one to suggest the Fog of Lost Souls as a just penance for Sozin, he had never visited this bleak place. And now that he was hearing the soft mumbles of the spirits or people trapped inside it, he was second-guessing his judgement.

"Aang blames himself for my mistakes…" Roku answered Kuruk, sighing.

"Fuck your mistakes, you did that. But I don't see you torturing yourself inside of this fog." The Water Tribe Avatar answered savagely.

"I think he blames himself for a lot of things…" Yangchen spoke, stepping between them, "Our people's decimation, his failures of ending the war quickly. The failure of that invasion. And the countless of deaths he thinks lies on his conscience. We can't decipher all that, because we all agreed those are private thoughts no Avatar should meddle in. But then again, perhaps Szeto did. And that is how he found a way to torture the young Avatar into this fog."

That was probably true… If Sozin had been helped by Szeto, or vice versa… That meant that they had known exactly where Aang was at his most vulnerable.

"And the Water Tribe girl?" Kyoshi asked, "Her missing would have been something an Air Nomad would blame on himself."

That was possible… but for some reason, Roku doubted Sozin or even Szeto being able to understand how much someone could love someone. No, they would have used that to break Aang's thin layer of confidence, seeping his darker doubts through the cracks.

"I think I have an answer." A soft, gentle voice interrupted them, and they all turned around to see the last person Roku had expected to see there.

"What are you doing here my friend?" He asked, astonished. He had not told him where to find them, or where to find Aang, for good reason. How could he have looked his friend in the eyes when he would learn that? That Aang was torturing himself? No… He could not have done that to his oldest, truest friend.

"Oh, when you explained what was happening to Aang, I went to the Master Katara. Something you could have done too, I might add." The words were spoken lightly, with a tinge of amusement. But Roku heard the soft iron underneath the light tone. That was not a joke, but rather a gentle reproach.

"She worries about him, and so do I. Is he there?" The spirit gestured towards the mist.

"Yes…" Kuruk frowned, apparently not understanding what the Spirit was doing here.

"Well, then there is only one thing to do." And with that, the spirit walked briskly past them, towards the edge of the fog.

"Wait! It is the Fog of Lost Souls!" Yangchen called out, making the spirit turn around, "It… Well, it haunts you with your worst thoughts. The things you blame yourself for."

At that, the man just smiled, lifted his shoulders once, and stepped inside.

Aang tried to keep his eyes shut, but whenever he tried that, the images just passed right into his mind instead of happening right in front of him. There was too much to unpack, too many horrors… And it was his fault. Katara had been wrong. How could all this not have been his fault? He had abandoned his people just so that he could be selfish… Selfish enough to choose his own tutors. How could he have been so stupid? The Elders wanted to send him to the Eastern Air Temple, probably to teach him things he needed to know… But he had chosen to flee the temple, go to the Southern Water Tribe to learn waterbending…

He had abandoned his people. Jinora, Gyatso, all the other boys in the Southern Air Temple… All his friends. Bumi had been obliged to fight for his city his whole life… Kuzon had probably been heartbroken by what was happening to his country, but what could he have changed? All the others… Everyone he had ever loved was dead or had lived through horrors unimaginable, just because he had been selfish…

Everyone should blame him. The world was in ruins, millions were dead just because he had not wanted to be told how to live his life. The Earth Kingdom was a shell of what it had been, the Water Tribes were either nearly wiped out or stuck in the past…. The Fire Nation he had loved was gone, the people hated him, feared him… How was this world even possible to save? As Avatar, he was supposed to bring balance to the world, but how could you bring balance to a world that was all but gone?

"Aang." The gentle voice he recognized all too well spoke close to him. Everything but that… The airbender had thought that the accusations would be finished… Seeing what had happened to his people was already enough, but did he have to listen to his mentor's voice, tormenting him?

"No… not you." He sat down, his eyes still shut, clasping his arms around his legs, hugging them to his chest, "Anyone but you."

"Not the greetings I had expected my sweet boy." The voice chuckled, "Master Katara is worried about you."

The torture was going to change, wasn't it? It had shown him the horrors of the end of the Air Nomads, and now it was going to torture him with Katara…

"Go away." He whispered, not wanting to see whatever Sozin had in store for him now.

"Aang." Suddenly, something touched his shoulder. The touch was so unexpected that the airbender opened his eyes, startled. The other figures had not even touched him once.

Crouching in front of him was Gyatso. Not the skeleton he had seen when he had arrived in the mist, but flesh and blood.

"Not again." He whispered, recalling the first thing that had happened after falling unconscious. He had been at the Air Temple, Gyatso had been there… But it had not been his old friend. It had been the beginning of this torment… He didn't want to see all that again…

"It's me my boy. Sozin is not here, nor is Szeto. It is only me now." His old mentor whispered. Aang just buried his faces against his knees, shaking his head. He didn't want to believe it, even if it was the thing he wanted the most…

"Aang, listen to me. You can't stay here. You will go insane if you do, and you can't do that to me. Nor to the Master Katara. Or any of your friends. Please, stand up." He heard the rustling of the saffron robes as the figure in front of him straightened. Daring to look up, he saw a tattooed hand extended to him, while Gyatso smiled kindly. Hesitating, Aang saw his own fingers shake as he grasped the offered hand. How bad could the torture be? At least this way, he would go to it with his head held high… Kind of.

But as he was pulled up by the figure, there were no more images, no more whispers in the mist.

"What are you planning?" He asked, paranoid. This could only be a trap… Only that.

"Who says I have a plan?" The old man laughed, "Come on, you can't stay here." With that, the grasp on his fingers tighten, and the figure began to walk away, pulling Aang in the same direction.

"You can't be real." The airbender refused to believe that.

"Nothing is impossible, as long as you trust in it. Did I teach you nothing?" The laugh accompanying the words was so familiar. Aang had to admit, this was the best impersonation of Gyatso the figures had pulled off.

"The Avatars are also worried, and Roku explained what was happening. He didn't tell me where you were, but I found out, nonetheless. Don't worry, I also spoke to the Master Katara, trying to reassure her that everything would be fine." The kind voice explained, as the fingers around Aang's hand tightened once more.

His heart filled with dread. What had the figures of the mist told Katara? Knowing her, she would worry regardless, but if Sozin had managed to get inside of her head, digging for her insecurities… No, he wouldn't allow that.

"Leave her alone. Do with me what you want, but leave her out of it." The airbender spoke through gritted teeth.

"She was worried about you. All your friends are. And so am I."

"Most of my friends are dead, all because of me." Aang sighed. If the figures of the mist, or Sozin, or this Szeto, wanted to torture him, he would accept it. He would accept his role in the death of his people. As long as you accepted it, no one could hurt you with the truth.

Gyatso, or whatever the figure was, turned around, stopping dead in his tracks. The bushy eyebrows were raised so high Aang would have laughed aloud, but the moustache of the figure was dipped in such a way Aang recognized it instantly. Gyatso had always looked like that when he had heard about the death of one of his old friends. The figure released his hand, closing the distance between them, and putting his hands on his cheeks.

"Don't believe that for a second. You had nothing to do with our deaths. Sozin did that, and he is the only one to blame. Do you hear me? I am glad you ran away from the temple. You would have been killed with all of us otherwise. But instead, I got to see my young pupil grow into a better man I could have dared hope for."

Aang didn't know what it did, but the words made his heart crack.

"Y… you… are you real?" He whispered, tears filling his eyes.

"My sweet boy, listen to me. None of us blames you for what happened. No one. Don't ever feel guilty about the past, for you had nothing to do with it. And if you blame yourself for our death, don't forget that we are never truly gone. Let the past be just that, the past. Look to the future! Look towards the family you and Katara will start! Teach them about us, let that be our legacy. I can't imagine it better suited hands."

"Gyatso…" Aang sighed, finally realizing that this wasn't a figure from the mist. The tears in his eyes flowed down. As his mind raced with all the things he had wanted to ask, his old mentor smiled.

"Here we are." He whispered, and the mist seemed thinner here, "Aang, one more thing. Don't listen to anything Sozin or Szeto will say to you, the Avatars are going to find them and stop them, you don't have to do that. But the world needs you right now. Spirits, that town is needing you right now, you, as Avatar Aang. Not just the Avatar. Be Avatar Aang. As I said, don't hang in the past. Let your guilt go free, you are blameless. We will speak once more… In many, many years. Then, you will get to tell me all about your life."

At that moment, it felt like something pulled him out of the mist. As he opened his eyes, he heard cries of pain, of anger and terrified shouts.

Answers :

StarJem18 : Oh, she has a plan alright… But that is for next chapter!

Katara2323 : Orsu is doing the right thing, but you're right, of course Azula is not just sitting there and acting as if nothing is wrong. Zuko and Sokka always come up with the most reckless, dumbest things that actually work, lol!

Jjsmith103 : Orsu is braver than most, even though he doesn't realize it. He does what is right for his town, and what honor would demand. Azula is even more dangerous when she is crazy, because she doesn't care about anything right now. Before, she wanted her father's approval, but now that isn't needed… I hope I didn't disappoint with Aang in the Fog of Lost souls!