Its in the early afternoon when Zuko and the others arrive at the southern air temple, through the journey Aang has been talking about what it was like growing up there. He recalls growing up with his twin sister with the monks, playing games, learning the basics of airbending and spending time with Monk Gyatso who Aang claims is the best airbender to ever live. When they land however, its abundantly clear that something is terribly wrong with the temple. It is completely silent, the paint on the large spires has faded and the blue tiling on the roof tops are scorched. "Me, my sister and our friends would play Airball down there on the pillars. We even had teams for the different ages of kids that lived here too. My sister and I had to be put on the older kids group since we got our tattoos a lot earlier than our friends." Aang says as he leads them down the ancient staircase and to the standing posts of the airball court.
"Do the tattoos mean anything special?" Katara asks as Aang looks around the court trying to find one of the balls they would use, he manages to find one half buried in the snow. "Yeah," He says as he stands back up, "These are our mastery tattoos, when we master all 36 forms of airbending, we get the tattoos. Avatars don't get them though, but they do get glider staffs like mine." Aang responds before jumping up onto the posts. "This is gonna be your first lesson, Prince Zuko. You and Sokka get up on the other side and balance on the poles." The young airbender waits impatiently for the two to get up to their poles, he bends air through the slits on the airball causing it to spin rapidly as he levitates it in his hand.
"Why are we playing this game? I thought you were going to teach me." Zuko asks, his balance is shaky as the post is well worn with age and slight scorching. "Yeah Aang, prince Avatar here wants to learn the elements. I don't see how this is teaching him airbending." Sokka says in a somewhat mocking fashion and waving his arms pretending he's an airbender. "It is teaching, this is air ball. The point of the game is to get the ball through those goals over there. Heads up!" Aang shouts before airbending a spherical wooden ball with grooves in it. Zuko has little time to react and manages to dodge out of the way of the sphere not knowing how to redirect it. Sokka on the other hand gets beamed in the gut with it and falls off the pillar he was on. Katara giggles at her brother's misfortune and so does Aang. Zuko cracks a smirk at it as well before hopping down from the wooden pillar and walking up towards Katara. "You know what the fire nation did here don't you?" Katara asks under her breath to not alert Aang.
"We are taught as children that the airbenders attacked us first. I don't believe that my people would just wipe out an entire culture just because they could..." Zuko responds showing his denial of the situation. Katara steps aside, showing him the helmets of two firenation soldiers that have been there for the last 100 years and his heart sinks. He had wanted to believe that the fire nation weren't the bad guys but this was the first thing that started to change his mind. "We were taught that the war was our way of sharing our country's greatness with the rest of the world."
"That's what they tell you in school?" Katara asks, sickened at what she is hearing. "Yeah, my great grandfather Sozin started the war to expand our influence and show the world how great our society is… I never thought that we did something so.. evil." Zuko replies, looking at the bones. "You know this will destroy Aang if he sees this." Katara says before moving her arms and covering the helmets with snow. "He needs to know what happened to his people, he was trapped in that iceberg for over 100 years. He is the only airbender left."
"I don't understand, where are all the monks? All the bison? The lemurs? Where have they all gone?" Aang asks, noticing how quiet it is around the temple. "This place should be so alive but… it's so quiet." He says with his tone changing to a company of sorrow and grief. "We probably should just look around. Maybe we can find someone around here. They might not be expecting visitors." Sokka suggests that the quartet start to walk uphill towards the main sanctum of the air temple. "They might show up if you show them that you are an airbender too, plus you can even start teaching the prince over there how to air bend." Sokka suggests, though discouraged due to the silence in this place, Aang does agree to begin his first lessons with the prince.
"Well lets get started airbending then Zuko but we're going to do anything too complicated but the first thing is to practice patience." Aang says, leading Zuko to a small outcropping on the cliff face. There the two of them sit under a marble gazebo, cross legged looking out at the clouds before them. "Air moves fluidly, with ease. Even moving your body moves the air itself. Breathing is the easiest way to move the air currents and everyone can do that. You have to be patient with Air, once it has been moved, more air has to come back to fill the place where the moved air once was." Aang explains, he interlaces his hands in his lap before pressing his thumbs together. "Focus on your breathing, this is where your bending comes from."
Zuko sits in the same way Aang is sitting, facing in the same direction as the bald monk. He closes his eyes and focuses on the air around him, it takes more effort to breathe at this altitude and his breathing has been labored with how much walking they've been doing around the mountain. He calms his mind, slowing his breathing and getting it under control. Aang feels the air move with Zuko's breathing, feeling it be drawn towards them then pushed away as he exhales. Sokka and Katara see the clouds around them start to ascend and descend as well. The chill of the winds at this height being noticeable even through their thick furs. "You feel that Zuko? You're already moving the air around us with only your breathing. Now, open your eyes and move your hand like this."
Aang demonstrates by holding his hand up with his fingers curled in, he flicks his wrist quickly creating a gust of wind and forming a small tornado in his hand that dances for a few moments before dissipating. Zuko does the same motion with his hand, the first time nothing happens which annoys him slightly, Aang reminds him to breathe and remain calm. The second he creates the gust of wind and the twister appears in his hand. His eyes widen in shock seeing the small tornado in his palm as it dances against his skin. It is a weird sensation to have a column of air circulating in just your palm, it was much different than fire, it was harmless and free.
"I could hardly believe it at first but, you're definitely the avatar." Katara says seeing the tornado in his hand, Zuko still staring at the small funnel cloud in his hand. "Wow… You did that on your second try. I'm amazed, it took me days to learn how to do that."Aang states before Zuko turns over his hand and dropping the tornado. "I want to learn." Zuko says with an iota of excitement in his voice. Aang smiles seeing this and hops to his feet. "We should get you a glider first, that helps airbenders channel the air more and it's not too hard to learn." Aang suggests. "Sure." Zuko replies, getting to his feet and following Aang out of the small building. Zuko remains silent as they walk around the courtyards of the central temple area. While Aang has either been oblivious or hasn't allowed himself to notice it, Zuko is fully aware of the devastation left in the wake of Firelord Sozin's invasion here. He examines the murals on the walls of the temple, looking at the faded paint depicting airbender nuns, monks, sky bison and the mountains that surround them. "What does this door lead to?" Zuko asks as they reach a door at the end of the long hallway. He notices a series of wooden pipes in the shape of the symbol of air with two open holes on the bottom, likely for a key.
"This leads to the hall of the avatars, it takes two air bending masters or an Avatar to unlock it. Here I'll show you how to bend air through it to unlock it." Aang says, rubbing his hand over the funnel before stepping away from it. "Imagine gathering air in your hand and around your arm. Then guide it through your palm and into the tube. Like this." Aang demonstrates, he rotates his right arm around before going through a pushing motion releasing a gust of wind from his palm. Zuko tries this with his left arm going through the motions exactly how Aang has demonstrated, when he attempts it though flames burst from his hands for a moment and it startled Katara and Sokka. "Sorry, I didn't mean to do that." He quickly says seeing Sokka draw his sword. "Remember you have to breathe as you do this, Air flows around you and will move at the slightest motion. Empty your mind and focus on the air around you." Aang explains taking a deep breath as he moves his arm around in a circular motion before pushing a stream of air into the funnel. "Hopefully someone is here and they have meat for us." Sokka says hopeful of what they might find, after sheathing his sword that is.
Zuko takes a deep breath clearing the doubts from his mind. He focuses on the air entering his lungs and leaving them. He copies Aang and rotates his left arm in a circle over his shoulder before pushing his palm in the direction of the funnel. At first a spark of fire forms but vanishes as a gust of wind quickly over takes it and enters into the tube. The red tubes jostle before shifting, opening up the path for the air to follow. The three blue wooden spirals symbolizing the air nation start to rattle before turning over. The other side is purple with a hole in the center that chimes a single note, the second repeats this with the note sounding higher then, the last one turns finishing the chord with the root note. The door shifts on its own with dust and snow falling off of it.
As the door opens the light starts to peer into the room, Zuko creates a small flame in his hand to produce more light for them to see. Sokka tries to have his sister get behind him but she pushes him aside to follow Zuko and Aang into the room. "What is this place?" Katara asks as she enters the room. In front of them are statues depicting men and women garbed in their nations attire, Zuko and Aang continue walking towards the center of the room with Sokka walking up to a statue of a man and examining it. "Statues… I thought there would be meat!" He says dejectedly throwing his hands up in the air in an exasperated fashion. "It's strange… I feel like I know these people." Zuko says, looking at the face of an airbending nomad. "He is an airbender." Aang says, looking at the statue. "And this one is a water bender, look! It goes in a cycle. Air, Water, Earth and Fire." Katara says, pointing to the four statues. "It's the cycle of the avatar. Like you Zuko." Aang exclaims.
Zuko continues walking until he sees a statue of an older man with a flame shaped hair pin in his hair. Long white hair falling from a bun on the top of his head with his face framed in a beard that travels far down to his midsection. "Zuko?" Aang asks, walking up to the scarred man. Zuko doesn't turn his gaze away from the eyes of the statue. "Zuko? Zuko snap out of it." Katara says, shaking him back to reality. "Oh… I zoned out?" He asks, turning to face her and Aang. "Who is this?" Aang asks, looking at the statue. "Avatar Roku, the previous avatar from the firenation." He answers.
"How do you know his name? There's no name plate on here." Sokka says walking over to the statue. "I… I don't know but I feel like I've known him all my life. Wait, that's the crown of the fire prince." He says pointing to the crown at the top of his head. "Was he royalty or something?" Sokka asks before a noise gets their attention, the four of them turn to face the door to see a silhouette of what looks like a firebender. "It's the firenation, quickly hide! We can't let them see you!" Sokka whispers as the four of them quickly run behind a statue. Sokka draws his boomerang and sword with Zuko clenching his fists and Aang gripping his staff tighter.
On the other end of the door walks a bat lemur, large ears eyes and a long tail ending in a brown splotch with a ring of white before the tip. They instantly drop their guard with Aang exclaiming, "Lemur!" and Sokka, "Dinner." The two of them take off chasing the lemur out of the hall and down the corridor. "Aang! Sokka Wait!" Zuko shouts, sprinting after the two of them leaving Katara alone in the hall of the avatars.
The three of them chase the lemur out of the main structure of the temple and through several corridors. Each room they pass shows signs of scorch marks and soot littered along the walls. Outside they run following the flying lemur to a crumbling building with tarps for a roof. Aang sees the tarps in the room move and thinking the lemur ran inside this room he enters it. Zuko quickly follows and is horrified at what he sees. Skeletons garbed in firenation armor line the sides of the room, in the light slightly buried by the snow is the skeleton of an airbender with a wooden necklace. The blackened and charred bones of dozens of other skeletons are in the room, these ones significantly smaller than the one Aang is standing over. "W-Why? W-we were peaceful, friends to all nations… why would they attack us." He says through tears and sobs.
"No... no my grandfather couldn't have done this... we're not monsters..." Zuko says in disbelief, being unable to fathom the evils of what his own people did to passive monks and nuns. "These were just children... how could they just slaughter them like that?!" He asks, his teeth beginning to grit together as his anger gets the best of him. Behind him Sokka bursts through the cloth door cover only to find Zuko hunched over. Timidly he approaches the young firebender, placing a hand on his shoulder however this causes Zuko to turn to face him and Sokka is left terrified at Zuko's glowing eyes. The wind picks up violently as a sphere of condensed air forms around Zuko ripping the roof off of the building, or what's left of it rather.
In the hall of the avatars, Katara, looking at the statue of Roku, is suddenly taken aback when his eyes light up, followed by a statue of a woman in a warrior's dress and the water bender before her. Each and every statue's eyes light up spiraling backwards up towards the ceiling of the massive spire. "Oh no…" Katara says under her breath before starting to run out of the room. Little do they know that all statues depicting any past life of the Avatar are experiencing a similar phenomenon all over the world.
"Aang we need to get out of here before he brings this whole mountain down!" Sokka shouts over the winds, trying to get Aang to escape with him. "What happened, why did it trigger?!" Katara shouts running towards the windstorm centered on Zuko. "I don't know he just snapped!" Sokka shouts back, gripping onto the side of the wall so as to not be blown off the mountain. "Zuko! Please, I know the firenation genocided the air nomads but you can fix this! You're the avatar! As long as you live there is hope for peace. The airbending nation isn't gone, Aang is still with so please calm down!" Katara shouts trying to get to him.
Zuko starts to descend towards the ground, the air slowing in its ferocity and speed before dissipating once he is on his feet. His right eye streaming with tears seeing the evils that his people had committed. Aang, Katara and Sokka rush over to him before planting a hand on his back trying to soothe him. "Am I a monster..." He asks himself looking at the snow. "No, Zuko, you are the avatar and you will restore peace to the world but to do that we have to end the war." Aang says, trying to console him. Zuko picks his head up to look at them before seeing the lemur once again. "Shh, don't move you'll scare it away." Sokka says taking his sword out again. Aang pulls a peach from his bag before offering it to the lemur, it walks up to his hand and grabs it before starting to eat the peach. "Good thinking Aang, now grab it!" Sokka says but Aang just ignores him, he simply pets the lemur behind the ears causing it to turn its head into his hand.
"I think I'll call you Momo, because you like peaches." Aang says as the lemur walks up his shoulder and onto his back. "Oh now you named it? What are we supposed to eat now?" Sokka exclaims, Momo chirps and extends his hand giving Sokka the pit to the peach. Sokka at first looks excited at this but frowns catching the pit. The others snicker and laugh seeing this before heading back to Appa.
Zuko remains silent as they take flight once again, his thoughts plaguing his mind with dozens of questions after everything he has witnessed. What honor does he have when he's the prince of a nation who slaughter an entire race of people? What honor could he bring to the firenation after they've committed such an atrocity? How can he end the war? How can he restore peace after everything that's happened? How can he save the world?