Responses to Reviews:

Zigzagdoublezee: You're welcome!

RonaldM40196867: I think the Earth Kingdom's weaknesses are shown most during the show; but that's just because they still exist as a major force (meaning we see them) but their challenges are so immense. Otherwise, I don't think any of them didn't impress me.

As Always, Please Review!

The doors slammed ominously behind them, and Yue and Rinzen stepped forwards cautiously. As her eyes accustomed to the gloom, a statue appeared in front of her. Then another one, and another, until it became apparent that the room was full of them, arranged in a spiral pattern that emanated from the centre of the room and went up around the walls.

She went to stand in front of the nearest statue, depicting what looked like a small woman with long hair and a thin, stern face from the Fire Nation. She regarded it for a moment.

"How old are these?"

"Each one is put there after the passing of the Avatar it represents," Rinzen said. "That one there could be thousands of years old."

Yue blinked. "Thousands?"

"The Avatar has been around a long time."

"Do you know her name?" Yue changed line of questioning.

Rinzen checked at the base of the statue for any kind of name tag. But there was none. He turned to face her and shrugged apologetically.

"I can go maybe..." he counted on his fingers. "Seven Avatars back. Before that, I don't know any of them. I don't know if anyone else does either."

Only the long-ago Avatar's face remained. Would that be her fate, one day? Just a nameless statue in a dark, silent room, her name and deeds forgotten?

Let's not get ahead of ourselves, a voice in her head reminded her. There are no deeds to be forgotten yet.

She found the thought depressing, and moved past the statue. The second ring of statues were more recent, but still many hundreds of years old. The pattern always remained consistent. First came an earth Avatar, then one from the Fire Nation. Yue could tell them by the fiery patterns usually inscribed into their clothes. Then an Air Nomad, always sporting their distinctive shaved heads and mastery tattoos etched into the stone. Then, at the end, a water Avatar, their furs carved in intricate detail. Then the cycle began anew. The statues were decorated with all kinds of symbols; tattoos and necklaces and badges. Some of them Yue recognised, like the symbols of the Four Nations.

Some of them, probably representing political entities which hadn't existed for millennia, she could make no sense of.

"Maybe I should get my name sewed onto the front of my clothes somewhere," she pondered. Rinzen gave her a confused glance.

Whether each Avatar was tall or short, young or old, male or female, the cycle remained constant. It was the one rule of history, a pattern stretching back from this moment to the dawn of recorded history, and who knew how much further beyond that. Water followed air followed fire followed earth. It was as certain as the changing of the seasons, the tides going in and coming out, or night following day. The only thing that every single statue shared was the serene half-smile on all their faces. Yue followed the chain of statues around until, with only three more to go, she found one she recognised.

"I've seen her before."

The statue she was pointing at was of a tall, stern-faced woman in a robe with baggy sleeves, held down by the bracers strapped around each forearm. She held a fan in each gloved hand, and a semi-circular headdress. The pattern of her face-paint had been carved above her eyes. Although there was no colour, only the same dull grey as every other statue, Yue recognised the pattern.

"That's Kyoshi. Suki- that girl we met on the island- was telling me about her."

The next one was of a tall man with a flowing beard and long hair, topped off with the intricately designed headpiece of a member of the Fire Nation Royal Family.

"So I'm not the first Avatar to have been royal?" She asked, pointing at it.

"That's Roku," Rinzen said. "The last Fire Avatar. I don't think he was a member of the Royal Family, he was just best friends with Firelord Ozai's grandfather."

However, it was the next statue that Yue was really interested in. This one was of an air nomad, a tall man with the distinctive tattoos of a master of his element and a goatee. Rinzen eyed it, a strange expression on his face. Yue recognised the man it depicted instantly.

Aang.

There was nobody after him. Only an empty space where, Yue realised with an eerie certainty, her statue would one day stand. For a moment she wondered what it would look like, envisioning her own features rendered in the same grey stone, except ironically the distinctive white colour of her hair, her most prominent physical feature of all. That would be wiped away and lost in the mists of time. She shook her head, nearly overcome with the thought, then dragged her attention back to Aang. There were much more pressing matters to deal with. Eternity would have to wait.

"So we're here," she said. "What now?"

"We meditate," Rinzen said, immediately dropping so he was sat cross-legged in front of Aang's statue.

Yue hesitantly copied him. She settled down, folded her legs, and looked expectantly at Rinzen.

He looked back at her, grinned, and then closed his eyes. She did the same. She had meditated in the Spirit garden back home, but nothing like this. She had never managed successfully to meditate into the spirit world, and she had never even tried; the previous time she had ended up there, the decision had been taken out of her hands by a vengeful spirit.

Empty your mind, she thought. Focus on the statue. Focus on Aang. Nothing else matters. Breathe in, breathe out. Push, and pull.

She fell into the rhythm of it, and tried to lose herself in it. It was only her, and the statue. Nobody else, not Rinzen, and not any of the other past lives.

For a while, nothing happened. And then she heard Rinzen gasp. She didn't dare open her eyes, but through her eyelids she saw a sudden burst of light all around her. The atmosphere changed, and then she heard a voice, much too old to be Rinzen.

"Hello Avatar Yue," it said. "It's so good to finally meet you again. We have much to discuss, and not much time."