ECHOES
(The Southern Air Temple)
The sun was rising on a new day and Shinra, Aang and Katara were sitting on Appa, with the group's ninja still somewhat sleepy. They all were getting ready to start flying again to Aang's home; the Southern Air Temple.
"Wait till you see it, guys?" Aang said excitedly as he tightened the reigns on Appa. "The Air Temple is one of the most beautiful places in the world"
"Aang, I know you're excited.. but it's been a hundred years since you've been home" Katara pointed out.
"That's why I'm so excited " Aang replied.
"Yeah but a lot can change in a hundred years" Shinra added. "Who knows if the Air Nomads still even live there? I'd assume they're called nomads for a reason"
"Even if that's the case, I need to see it for myself" Aang insisted before jumping off Appa and heading towards Sokka who was still asleep.
"Wake up Sokka, Air Temple here we come!" Aang cheered.
"Sleep now, temple later" Sokka groaned and turned away from Aang. Aang was surprised at first but then smiled as an idea formed in his head.
Shinra knew that look.. it was the same look Naruto always had before dragging him into some elaborate prank.
Aang grabbed a nearby stick and started trailing it along Sokka's sleeping back. "Sokka wake up, there's a prickled snake in your sleeping bag!"
Sokka immediately jumped to his feet and hopped forward. "Get it off! Get it off-"
The water tribe boy then tripped on a rock and fell face down, earning laughs from Katara and Shinra. Sure it wasn't like Naruto's massive prank of painting the Hokage monument, but it was still funny nonetheless.
"Great, you're awake, let's go!" Aang said cheerfully as Sokka silently fumed.
A few hours later they were in the air again and flying towards the Air Temple. Shinra had never gotten over how amazing it felt to be this high up. It was a different type of thrill entirely and it felt freeing. According to what Aang told him, all airbenders had sky bison. To him that was pretty damn cool. If he had a bison like Appa he probably wouldn't need to summon the toads much.
"Hey stomach be quiet , I'm trying to find us some food" Sokka's voice cut Shinra out of his reverie. He turned to see the boy shoving his hand through a sack and then turn the sack upside down to find only crumbs.
"Hey, who ate all my blubbered sea jerky?" Socks looked around.
"I have no idea what that even is" Shinra raised his hands in Innocence.
"Oh that was food?" Aang asked from his place on Appa's head. "I used it to start the campfire last night"
"Damnit, I should've tried some!" Shinra folded his arms.
"You what?!" Sokka yelled before pouting"No wonder the flames smelled so good"
"The Patola mountain range!" Aang yelled. "We're almost there!"
"Aang before we get there, I wanna talk to you about the Airbenders" Katara spoke nervously.
"What about em?" Aang asked.
"I just want you to be ready for what you might see" Katara said. "The Fire Nation is ruthless... They killed my mother"
"Wait..." Shinra thought out loud. "Gran Gran said the airbenders were extinct... Did the Fire Nation really..."
"Just cause no one has seen an Airbender doesn't mean the Fire Nation killed them all" Aang shrugged off both their concerns. "They probably escaped"
"I don't know,man.." Shinra shook his head slightly, the grim possibility causing him to shudder.
"I know it's hard to accept" Katara placed a hand on his shoulder.
"You guys don't understand" Aang kept going. "The only way to get to an air Temple is on a flying bison, and i doubt the Fire Nation has any"
"I honestly hope you're right" Shinra looked off into the distance. He didn't know how Aang would take it if the Airbenders really were extinct. Hopefully not as badly as Sasuke took the Uchiha massacre.
Aang soon had Appa go straight up to get above the mountains. Sokka and Katara held on to what they could while Shinra channelled chakra to both his hands and feet to keep himself stuck to Appa's saddle. Eventually the temple came into view.
"There it is, the Southern Air Temple" Aang smiled.
"It's... Wow" Shinra gazed at the giant structure. He started to see Aang's point, how could the Fire Nation even get up here?
"We're home,buddy. We're home" Aang smiled.
Zuko knew he shouldn't have let his uncle talk him into this.
He was currently sitting with Commander Zhao against his will all because Iroh couldn't say no to a cup of tea.
"How's your search for the Avatar coming?"
The mention of the Avatar alone made Iroh accidentally knock over the weapons that were on one side of the room. "My fault entirely..."
"We haven't found him yet" Zuko stated, trying to maintain a stoic expression.
"Did you really expect to?" Zhao asked. "The Avatar died a hundred years ago along with the rest of the Airbenders"
Zhao then noticed Zuko wasn't looking at him directly, causing the commander to smirk. "... Unless you've found some evidence that the Avatar is alive"
"No, nothing" Zuko looked down.
"Prince Zuko, the Avatar is the only one who can stop the Fire Nation from winning this war," Zhao inched closer to the Fire Nation prince. "If you have an ounce of loyalty left, you'll tell me what you've found"
"I haven't found anything " Zuko insisted. "It's like you said, the Avatar probably died a long time ago"
Zuko had had enough and stood up from his seat. "C'mon, Uncle. We're going"
Before he could walk away however, a pair of soldiers placed their spears in his way while another soldier spoke to Zhao.
"Commander Zhao, we interrogated the crew as you instructed. They confirmed Prince Zuko had the Avatar in custody but let him escape. And even more unsettling, they apparently had custody of another boy who had power enough to rival the Avatar's... And apparently has the ability to bend both air and.. lightning"
Zhao's eyes widened at the new information. Another person who could bend multiple elements? That too, lightning..
"He supposedly had a complexion typical of those from the water tribe, yet his clothing seems to be of the earth kingdom" The soldier continued. "but his most distinguishing feature was a blue headband with a metal plate tied around his forehead. He and the Avatar seem to be travelling together"
Zhao stroked his chin. Whoever this boy was, he was quite an enigma. Could he be a traitor to the Fire Nation or one of the colonies perhaps?
"It seems you've been quite busy indeed," Zhao turned to Zuko and leaned closer, a smug grin on his face. "Now remind me, how exactly was your ship damaged?"
Aang was leading the three through the path that led to the temple entrance.
"So where do I get something to eat?" Sokka asked, earning a dirty look from Shinra.
"Get a grip,man" Shinra shook his head.
"You're one of the first outsiders to ever visit an Airbender temple and all you can think about is food?" Katara asked.
"I'm just a simple guy with simple needs" Sokka shrugged.
"I'm hungry too but you don't see me bitching about it" Shinra narrowed his eyes. Sokka seemed to have an appetite that could give even Choji a run for his money.
"Language, young man!" Katara glared at him.
"Sorry" Shinra practically shrunk under her glare.
"You really need to watch your mouth" Katars folded her arms like a disappointed mother.
Where exactly had Shinra picked up his swearing habit from? His Sensei read adult novels half the time and the woman he considered a mother figure was a notorious drunk.
... Not the best habits to have around a 13 year old kid.
"Over there was where I'd play airball with my friends, and that was where the bison would sleep" Aang pointed excitedly, but his face fell once he noticed the current state of the place.
"What's wrong?" Katara asked.
"This place used to be full of monks and lemurs and bison" Aang said. "Now there's just a bunch of weeds... I can't believe how much things have changed"
Shinra let out a sigh. He held out some hope that the Airbenders survived but from the looks of it, this place hadn't been lived in for decades.. and that was putting it mildly.
Sokka walked up to Aang. "So this airball game, how do you play?"
Soon after explaining the rules, Aang and Sokka were on two of the poles on opposite sides of the airball arena.
"I don't see Sokka winning this" Shinra shook his head. "He can't bend"
"You can use air, why didn't you go play with him?" Katara questioned.
Her attention was caught by Aang kicking the ball, powering his kick with Airbending. The ball bounced off almost all the poles in the arena before hitting Sokka straight in the midsection and sending him flying onto the snow covered ground.
"That's why" Shinra laughed.
"Aang 7, Sokka 0" Aang laughed.
"Aye that's not fair!" Shinra laughed a little before going to help Sokka up.
"Making him feel better is putting me in a world of hurt" Sokka complained.
"That's life,bud" Shinra patted his shoulder before noticing something. Looking closer it looked like a Fire Nation helmet.
"Aye Sokka do you see this?" He asked.
"Yeah.." the water tribe boy replied. "Katara come check this out"
Katara came over and saw what the two boys were looking at. "Fire Nation"
"We gotta tell him" Shinra looked at the siblings. "He'll have to find out sooner or later"
"Aang, there's something you should see!" Katara called out.
As the Airbender headed over to them, Katara immediately had a second thought and bent some snow onto Sokka, covering both him and the helmet, much to Shinra's confusion.
"What is it?" Aang asked.
"Uh.. just a new waterbending move I learned" Katara said.
"Nice one, but enough practicing" Aang turned around towards the temple entrance. "We have a whole temple to see"
"Y'know, you can't protect him forever" Sokka stood up.
"He's right" Shinra looked at Katara. "They took out the airbenders, there's no way he won't find out with things like that helmet still laying around"
Katara looked away from both boys and walked towards the temple entrance.
"Katara, firebenders were here," Sokka told his sister as Aang ran around the temple and Shinra looked around. "We can't pretend they weren't"
"I can for Aang's sake" Katara said as they followed after him. "If he finds out the Fire Nation destroyed his home, he'll be devastated"
"Then it's better to get it over with quickly" Shinra spoke, his eyes going down to his sandals. "It's like ripping off a bandage or taking out a splinter. It'll definitely hurt but at least it'll give him some kind of closure"
Through his tone and body language, Katara could tell the boy was speaking from experience of some kind.
Before she could reply however, Aang called out to them.
"Guys, I want you to meet somebody!" He said, standing in front of a statue that had some snow on it.
"Who's that?" Sokka asked.
"Monk Gyatso, the greatest Airbender in the world" Aang smiled. "He taught me everything I know"
Shinra couldn't help but smile as Aang bowed respectfully to the statue of his old mentor.
"You must miss him" Katara placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Yeah" Aang replied sadly before starting to walk again.
"Where are you going?" Shinra asked.
"The Air Temple sanctuary" Aang replied. "There's someone I'm ready to meet"
Katara looked at Shinra and Sokka who both shrugged but went after him anyway.
The four soon approached a gigantic door that had three blue spiral symbols on it. They reminded Shinra of the symbol on the back of his vest, except his was red.
"Would anyone even survive in there for that long?" The ninja finally asked.
"It's not impossible, I survived in the iceberg" Aang pointed out.
"Yeah but an iceberg isn't a locked room" Shinra tried to argue but was stopped by Katara's hand on his shoulder. She gave him a look that told him to just drop it.
"Guys, whoever's in there might be able to help me figure out this avatar thing" Aang smiled.
"Or whoever's in there might have a medley of delicious, cured meats" Sokka rubbed his hands.
"What... How did you even come to that conclusion?" Shinra gave Sokka an exasperated look.
The water tribe boy immediately ran for the door, only to slam into it.
"Nice plan, genius" Shinra folded his arms and tilted his head sarcastically.
Sokka glared at the boy before turning to Aang. "I don't suppose you have a key"
"They key, Sokka, is Airbending" Aang explained before stepping forward.
Once the others gave enough room, Aang blew two sustained gusts of air into both openings in front of the door. After a few seconds, the mechanisms on the door sprung to life and one by one, the blue spirals flipped and turned red. The door then opened to reveal an unlit room.
'interesting...' the nine tails hummed from inside Shinra.
"Okay that was cool" Shinra smiled in admiration before the four started walking into the room.
'Sure, just walk into a dark room, real smart' came the voice of the tailed beast again.
'zip it, fluff ball'
The group walked into the dimly lit room and were immediately faced with statues.
"What in the world..." Shinra whispered as he looked around. Statues were all he could see in the room. He would be lying if he said he wasn't creeped out but Shinra followed the three deeper into the room nonetheless.
"Statues? That's it?! Where's the meat?!" Sokka asked, earning him a quick snack upside the head from Shinra.
"Who are all these people?" Katara asked.
"I don't know," Aang looked at the statues carefully. "but I feel like I know them somehow"
He then pointed at one of the statues. "Hey, that one's an Airbender!"
"That one's a waterbender!" Katara pointed to the next statue. "They're lined up in a pattern"
Shinra looked at the statue right next to the one Katara pointed at. This one didn't seem distinct to him besides the headdress so he assumed she was an earthbener as he'd never seen one before. The next one however, he recognized immediately by the robes. That was unmistakably a firebender.
"They're lined up in a pattern; Fire, Air, Water and Earth" Katara informed. "It's the Avatar cycle!"
"There's an Avatar cycle?" Shinra looked at Katara confused and the waterbender nodded.
"We really have to reach you more about this world, Shinra" Katara looked at the boy. "listen carefully,okay?"
Shinra nodded obediently.
When the Avatar dies he's reincarnated into the next nation in the cycle" Katara explained. "All these people are Aang's past lives!"
"Woahh" Shinra looked around at the statues. "man, how many times have you come back?"
"Past lives?" Sokka scoffed. "Katara, you really believe in that stuff?"
"You've seen a guy from a completely different world with the ability to bend more than one element and hold immense power" Katara nodded towards Shinra. "And you find this hard to believe?"
"Fair enough" Sokka conceded.
Shinra looked at Aang and noticed he seemed to be staring at that statue of the firebender Avatar in a daze. "Aye, Aang... Aang!"
Katara shook the young monk. "Aang snap out of it!"
"Huh? Sorry..." Aang blinked.
"Who's that?" Katara asked.
"That's Avatar Roku, the Avatar before me" Aang said simply.
"You were a firebender?" Sokka asked. "no wonder I didn't trust you when we first met"
"So what's your excuse for not trusting Shinra?" Katara folded her arms and Shinra himself put his hands in his pockets, waiting for the boy's response.
"No comment" Sokka immediately said. Having both of them stare him down was enough for the son of Hakoda to shut his mouth.
"Anyways,there's no writing, how can you tell?" Katara asked Aang.
"I don't know.. I just know it somehow" Aang replied.
"It kinda makes sense if he's a past life" Shinra said. "you're connected to him"
Suddenly the four heard a noise and immediately took hiding spots behind the statues.
"Firebender" Sokka whispered. "Nobody make a sound-"
Shinra shushed the boy.
"That firebender won't know what hit him" Sokka whispered. All four of them jumped out to face the intruder.
"What the- " Shinra dropped his fighting stance as they were now faced with what looked like a lemur but it's ears were pretty big.
"Lemur!" Aang yelled excitedly.
"Dinner" Sokka said hungrily, literally drooling.
"Don't even think about it" Shinra glared at the water tribe boy.
"Yeah" Aang said to him. "You're gonna be my new pet"
"Not if I get him first!" Sokka said before both he and Aang ran towards the lemur who immediately ran off.
"Should we go after them?" Shinra asked Katara.
"They'll be fine" she reassured. "I don't think Sokka's gonna catch it"
"Honestly... same" Shinra nodded and the two went back to looking at the statues.
Katara looked at Shinra for a few seconds as he inspected a statue. She then remembered something.
"Shinra?" Katara called his attention.
"Yeah?" His eyes were still fixed on the statues.
"Remember when you said you'd tell us what that red power was back on Zuko's ship?" Katara asked gently. She could tell Shinra knew what she was talking about as his body visibly tensed.
"... Yeah" Shinra's voice got a little lower.
"What... Was that?" She asked as gently as she could, placing an arm on his shoulder. It seemed to be a sensitive topic for him.
Before Shinra could even open his mouth however, the statues' eyes started glowing white. Katara gasped and Shinra jumped back.
'Kid, I can feel an insane amount of bloodlust' the nine tails warned his current jailer.
"Something's wrong" Shinra said as they shared a look.
"C'mon, we'll get there faster this way" Shinra said before immediately picking Katara up, channelling chakra to the soles of his shoes and running out of the room to find Aang and Sokka.
Meanwhile, throughout the world in the temples, the lights of the avatars shone throughout the nations.
"Send word to the Fire lord, immediately" one Fire Sage said to another. "The Avatar has returned"
Shinra and Katara found Sokka holding on to some parts of the walls for dear life as Aang had himself encased in a pretty violent air bubble, his tattoos and eyes glowing.
"You guys go off for two minutes and this happens?!" Shinra looked at Sokka. "What even happened?!"
"He found out firebenders took out Gyatso" Sokka explained.
Shinra's eyebrows went up as a chill ran through his spine. "Oh no..."
"It's his Avatar spirit, he must've triggered it!" Katara said. "I'm gonna try calm him down!"
"Katara you can't just go up to him while he's like that!" Shinra countered when he suddenly felt a familiar wave of heat start to expand throughout his body before he became encased in the nine tails' red chakra.
'The only reason I'm helping you is that if you die, I die' came the fox's deep voice. 'And I don't feel like dying, the other half would never let me live it down. Take the girl and go'
"Shinra not to cause alarm but your feral look is back!" Sokka pointed out.
"It's okay, man" Shinra then turned to Katara. "Hold on to me, I'll use this to shield us both"
Katara nodded right before the ninja picked her up again, encasing her in the red shroud of chakra as well before carrying her towards the still floating Aang.
"Hurry before he blows us off the mountain!" Sokka called out.
"Aang I know you're upset!" Katara spoke to him once they got close enough, raising her voice so he could hear her through the windstorm. "I know how hard it is to lose the people you love. I went through the same thing when I lost my mom. Monk Gyatso and the Airbenders may be gone but you still have a family.. Sokka, Shinra and I. We're all your family now!"
Aang's white eyes widened at that and he slowly started to come back down. The storm completely stopped as soon as he touched the ground.
Shinra breathed a sigh of relief and slowly put Katara down. He let the red chakra around him slowly dissipatenbsp; as the water tribe siblings walked towards Aang.
'Thanks, Fox'
The nine tails simply responded with a scoff.
Shinra walked towards them as Katara caught Aang, keeping him from falling.
"I'm sorry," Aang said.
"It's okay" Katara said. "It's not your fault"
"That means you were right" Aang continued. "If the firebenders found this temple, that means they found all the others too. I really am the last Airbender"
"That's true but still, a lot of others have been hurt by the Fire Nation" Shinra looked at Katara and Sokka while placing a hand on Aang's shoulder. "They were too. I know we can't replace the Airbenders, but we'll always be here for you"
"Thanks, guys" Aang replied.
Later on Aang was back in the statue room staring at Roku's statue.
"Everything's packed" Katara walked towards him, Shinra right beside her.
"How's Roku supposed to help me if I can't talk to him" Aang asked.
"I'm sure he'll turn up somehow" Shinra stated and Katara nodded in agreement.
Suddenly the four turned around to see the lemur walking back in, this time with fruits in it's arms. The lemur walked towards Sokka and Shinra, dropping some fruits in front of each of them.
The ninja couldn't help but smile at the lemur. "Thanks, little guy"
Sokka and Shinra both went to pick up the fruits they were given. Though Shinra had no idea if these fruits were any different from the ones in his world, he was too hungry to really pay any kind to that.
"Looks like you made a new friend, Sokka" Aang smiled.
"Can't talk, must eat" Sokka replied with a mouthful of food.
"So what're you gonna name him?" Shinra asked Aang, pausing between bites of an apple.
"I don't know yet" Aang held his chin.
Before they flew away from the temple, Aang stood and looked at the temple one more time with Appa and his new lemur.
"You, me and Appa" Aang said. "We're all that's left of this place. We need to stick together"
"Katara, Sokka, Shinra.. "Aang spoke to his friends. "Say hello to the newest member of our family..."
Before Aang could finish, the lemur swooped over to Sokka and stole the fruit he was eating. Earning a laugh from Shinra.
"... Momo" Aang finished before everyone else joined in Shinra's laughter.
As they flew away from the Southern Air Temple, Aang looked back at it one more time, silently saying a last goodbye to his former life.
Shinra noticed and pursed his lips, relating to how the bald monk felt, particularly about losing Gyatso. He had the same pain when heard Grandpa Third had passed away. Granted, the old man wasn't around half as much as Shinra would've liked due to his responsibilities as Hokage but he was still important to him.
Shinra let out a breath, wondering was going on in the leaf village right now. He missed a lot of things and people from his home.
Yes, even Sakura.
Later that night, the group made camp for the night and had just finished dinner. Katara finally decided to ask the question she'd started earlier today. She'd not only seen him use it again, but she'd actually felt it this time too. It was both thrilling and terrifying all at once... But the amount of hatred and negativity she felt from that power almost made her sick.
"Shinra" she started. "That power you used today. You never explained what it was"
Shinra let out a deep breath from his nostrils. He knew he'd have to do this sooner or later. He supposed he had to get it over with.
Slowly he looked at his three friends.
"Please don't judge me for what I'm about to tell you" Shinra asked. Katara noticed he sounded way more vulnerable than usual.
"We wouldn't ever judge you" Katara reached out and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Talk to us"
"Yeah, we're your friends" Aang nodded.
Even Sokka spoke out. "Nothing could make us judge you"
Shinra nodded slowly before speaking. "Just like how Aang has both the power and burden of being the Avatar, I have something similar"
"Really? What is it?" Aang leaned forward in curiosity.
"I hold a monster inside me" Shinra spoke softly. "13 years ago, a giant nine tailed demon fox attacked our village. The Fourth Hokage, the village leader at the time, stood up to the creature and fought it. He won, but he couldn't kill the fox cause it would've just respawned somewhere else sooner or later. So he split the nine tails and sealed the halves in a pair of babies..."
"And one of those babies was you" Aang finished.
Shinra nodded. "The other was my best friend, Naruto. Ironically we didn't meet each other till we were about 8. The Third Hokage came back into power after the Fourth passed away and made a decree, making everyone stay quiet about the nine tails and keep it from us. I guess the old man just wanted us to live like normal kids... But it didn't work out that way. Everyone saw us as two halves of the same demon in human forms... We were treated like monsters"
Katara felt her heart break at that. How could they do this to innocent children? Aang and Sokka had sad expressions on their faces.
"I personally just sort of... got used to it and stopped questioning it" Shinra continued, his gaze shifted to the floor. "But Naruto kept playing pranks and deliberately being annoying just to remind them that we existed. All we had for a long time was each other"
He let out a small chuckle as he remembered the pranks Naruto would drag him into.
"I'm surprised you stayed loyal to the village even through all that" Katara commended. She couldn't imagine how she'd feel if the water tribe treated her that way.
"Don't worry, it got better," Shinra looked at her. "we came across someone who actually treated us like... People. He was also out first teacher; Iruka. He pretty much gave us all the push we needed to finally start training in the ninja academy. It was a huge relief.. and life slowly got better since then"
"Iruka sounds like the only sensible one in the village " Sokka spoke.
"Y'know the ironic part is that the nine tails killed his parents that very same night it got sealed in me and Naruto" Shinra explained. "He was an orphan.. but he never pinned it on us or hated us for it. Not even once.. thanks to both him and Naruto, I got stronger both physically and mentally. I just hope you guys can see me for who I am like how Iruka Sensei did"
"Of course we see you for who you are" Katara smiled at him.
"Yeah, you may hold a fox spirit but you're still a part of this family" Aang nodded.
"You're not the nine tails. You're your own person and we fully know that" Sokka added. "We're glad we met you, Shinra"
"Thanks, guys" the chunin smiled. It felt great to get this off his chest and he counted himself lucky to have friends who didn't judge him just cause of his circumstances.
The group stayed up for a few minutes more before putting out the fire and going to bed. Shinra particularly went to bed with thoughts of the leaf, hoping they were all okay.
'I'll be back, everyone. I promise...'