Another day amongst the clouds, it had been like this for the past couple of days. Flying from town to town, stocking up on provisions, and then continuing their journey. Zuko has elected himself the de facto money handler since he was the oldest and knew not to squander it on petty things that he and his friends didn't need. He only ever spent it when absolutely necessary, keeping an insistence on fishing or hunting for their meat and foraging for fruits and nuts as to stave off scurvy and for Aang's vegetarian diet. Though Aang didn't like the thought of hunting other animals for food, he didn't protest all that much as it meant Zuko could focus more on airbending. The screech of a bearded red feathered hawk distracts the young avatar from taking stock of the money they had left (only amounting to a single gold piece, five or so silver pieces and 20 copper) causing him to look about the sky for the bird. Meanwhile, Katara is looking out over the sea of clouds that cover the land below in a large white blanket.
"Those clouds look so fluffy. Like you can just jump into them." Katara muses to no one in particular, but her musings are commented on by her ever sarcastic brother.
"Then why don't you jump into them?" He jives, looking up from a small stick he was whittling with his knife.
"I'll do it!" Aang shouts excitedly before grabbing his staff and leaping off Appa's head. Katara, Sokka and Zuko peek over the side of the saddle and watch him fall into the blanket of clouds leaving a small outline impression of him as he passes through it. It isn't long before he comes flying back over the other side of Appa sopping wet. "So it turns out that clouds are just made of air and water." This conclusion from Aang is then followed by him punching his fist into his palm and exhaling through his nose and drying himself off.
"What is that…" Katara asks, looking towards the forest below. Ahead of them in through the parting clouds a large swath of land has been charred black. Hundreds of acres of once lush forestry had been incinerated. The earth charred black with with the burning of everything that couldn't escape the inferno.
"It's like the land was scarred." Sokka says aloud as the four of them stare at the burned devastation. Deciding to investigate, Aang brings them in for a landing in the scorched earth. The ash and black soot puffing up as they land causing Appa to cough which is soon followed by the others as well.
"It's as quiet as the dead." Zuko says in a solemn tone.
"What happened here?" Katara asks as they hop off of Appa's saddle and onto the ashen soil. "Could a lightning strike have caused this?" A few paces behind her, Sokka found the reason why this had happened. Dozens of boot marks through the ash, the heavy in time pattern of their marching was all the evidence he needed.
"The firenation caused this..." Zuko says just above a whisper, infront of him is the charred remains of a gazelle-deer and its fawn. "We really are the bad guys… aren't we?" He asks himself before taking a seat in the ash. "I don't know how I can fix this… how any avatar can fix this… I don't even know how to be the avatar."
"There isn't someone that can teach you that… is there?" Katara asks but gets no response from the prince.
"I'm not sure if it's possible, but when my sister was revealed to be the avatar, Monk Gyatso told us that Avatar Roku would be able to teach her." Aang explains.
"How would he be able to do that? He's been dead for over 100 years and three other avatars have come and gone in his time too." Zuko however isn't paying attention, instead he focuses on the scarred and scorched earth before him for hundreds of acres.
"Maybe since he's a firebender like Zuko, he'd be able to help in some way. He is one of his past lives." Aang ponders.
"But how would I even get in contact with him? It's not like I can make a campfire, stare into it and say 'Hey, avatar Roku, I'm in a mess and could use your advice right now.' Besides, Sokka said it himself, he's dead so he's not going to be able to help me." Zuko, now infuriated with the current situation, slams his fists into the ashen soil out of frustration, unintentionally airbending two paths projected by his hands away from him, lifting the ash and debris. However, Katara notices something in the upturned ash.
"Well it's not all bad, besides. I think this will cheer you up." Zuko is then struck in the back of the head by an acorn.
"What the hell was that for?!" He roars, fire exploding from his mouth before he looks down at the acorn resting in the ash. "How is a stupid acorn meant to fix this?" He asks but his anger is quickly directed towards Sokka who just had to make a comment about it.
"Cheered me up." Sokka says with a laugh before being beamed himself by his sister. "Yeah… I probably deserved that." He relents with croc tears in his eyes from the stinging.
"Zuko, the acorns will one day regrow into a new forest. Sure it was burned down but it isn't gone forever." As he's about to respond however, some rustling in the trees on the barrier of forest surrounding the ash distracts them. From it an elderly man in furs and robes comes walking out of the woods with an awestruck expression on his face.
"I knew it! I knew I saw the bison. Are you the avatar young man?" The bearded elderly traveler asks before being corrected by Aang.
"Oh I'm no-"Aang begins, shaking his head however he's interrupted by Zuko.
"You mean me." Zuko says, walking up to the elderly man.
"My village needs your help. Desperately."
The journey from the scorched forest to the elder's village took up the majority of the day. The man insists that he leads the way, but due to his old age it takes them several hours to head from where they had landed to the village. Granted, the term ruins would be more appropriate for the description of the partially destroyed town. Its main gates were completely missing and most of the surrounding walls near the entrance were destroyed. The first half of the town, which only consisted of a handful of buildings, was completely destroyed. The only things remaining from what were once homes now reduced to the wood scraps that made up the supports of the former abode. The four are led to the largest building in town where the other villagers are congregated and cowering from whatever had caused the destruction. Entering the town hall, Zuko almost instantly takes note of a mother and child talking to each other near a staircase off to the far corner. The young boy had obviously been crying but the cause escaped the avatar at the moment.
"This young man is The Avatar." The elder introduces, prompting another man with his hair done up in a top knot to walk over and greet him.
"So the rumors of your return are true, and you've returned as a firebender no less. It's a pleasure to meet you." The village chief greets Zuko with a respectful bow prompting him to do the same.
"It's a pleasure to meet you too, I am Avatar Lee." Zuko greets, once again using his fake name. "The elder told us that your village needs help… with what exactly?"
"For the past few nights at sundown, a spirit monster has attacked us. It has even taken several of the other villagers." The chief explains before the elder continues on for him.
"The spirit is Heibai, The Black and White spirit."
"Do you know why he's attacking you?" The chief shakes his head no at Sokka's question before walking to the frame of the door and looking out at the destroyed gate.
"No, what is worse is the past three nights he's begun kidnapping people. It's only worsened by the fact that the winter solstice is in 2 days. The solstice is when the spirit world and ours become so close, that the borders between them become almost nonexistent. When the solstice is here, we might all be taken." Zuko doesn't know where to even begin, opting to remain silent and attempt to comprehend the chief's words.
"I don't know what I can do or how I can help." He admits, the rhythmic tapping of the elder's cane on the wood floor stops when he gets to the avatar's side.
"You are the best person to resolve our problem. You are the bridge between our world and the spirit world." Katara notices that Zuko looks visibly shaken by this statement from the elder.
"Okay… th-that's right." Zuko stammers, trying and failing to hide his nervousness.
"Alright, we need to talk over here. Privately." Katara breaks up the conversation between Zuko and the villagers before pushing him over towards the window and out of earshot of anyone else aside from their group. "So do you have any idea how to fix this?"
"Nope. I have no idea where to even start." Zuko says feigning confidence, causing Katara to smack her forehead.
"We're doomed." Sokka sighs, melting downwards on the wall until he finally lands on the floor.
"Don't say that, I'm sure we'll figure something out." Aang in his typical optimistic fashion.
"Yeah… we're all gonna get eaten." Sokka continues but it only earns him a glare from his sister.
"Well this is just fantastic." Zuko thought to himself, now that he is stuck knee deep in angry spirit monster mumbo jumbo. He wondered if any other avatar had to stop a town or city from another spirit monster. Granted the possibility was extremely likely and now he found himself wondering why he even asked the question in the first place. Right now however, he was focused on one thing. How the heck is he going to deal with Heibai? He's 90% sure talking to the spirit won't solve much, though he was hoping it would… Oh who is he kidding, he's completely screwed. For the moment he needs to at least try to put on the facade that he has an idea of what is happening. Thankfully to keep his mind off the altercation to come, the townspeople were more than courteous enough to provide them with a warm meal and tea. The hot leaf juice reminded him of how much he missed his uncle, especially since his tea is a lot better than what was provided. Though he didn't complain.
Unfortunately for him, the sun dipped lower and lower in the horizon, painting the sky in hues of orange, violet and purple. He wished that he had more time to mentally prepare himself for battling the Heibai spirit, but that time was running short. He had just finished the fish and rice when one of the townsmen on watch entered the hall notifying them it was only minutes till sun down. This statement causes Zuko to almost choke as his heart starts pounding out of his chest. He was about to fight an angry spirit that had single handedly destroyed most of this town. So no pressure. Trying to keep his composure, Zuko rose from where he was seated and took a deep breath. Standing to his full height, he begins walking towards the door. Aang rushes up to his pupil and gives Zuko the glider staff believing he will need it.
"Alright Zuko, it's just an angry spirit monster that has destroyed wood and stone buildings and has been terrorizing these people for the past several days. No pressure, you're the avatar it has to listen to you… I hope." He attempts to give himself a pep talk in his mind, walking out into the center of the destroyed village. "Here goes nothing." He says to himself before taking a deep breath and exhaling a small burst of fire for reassurance. "Heibai! I am Avatar Lee and I demand that you cease your attacks on this village!" Zuko yells into the evening air. Twirling and slamming the end of Aang's staff on the ground as some sort of display.
"He's screwed." Sokka says watching this happen from the safety of the town hall, however this statement causes Katara to elbow him in the ribs.
"Well that was anticlimactic." Zuko says as he shrugs his shoulders and turns away from the destroyed gate. The eerie quiet of the empty town keeping him on edge as part of him wants to sprint as fast as he can to the safety of the rest of the group. As he continues walking back towards the town hall the forest is filled with the evening wind, it sounding as if it was whispers and murmurs. Out from the forest itself an apparition appears behind Zuko. A gargantuan beast with two sets of arms, a piebald color pattern of black and white across its giant form. Almost appearing reptilian, it slowly and silently walks behind Zuko trailing him as if it is a predator and he is the prey. Ahead of him, Zuko sees the expressions of Aang, Katara and Sokka from the window change. Now the three of them are staring in fear at him, or more specifically…
"It's right behind me isn't it?" Zuko deadpans, sighing in frustration. He slowly turns around to face the 15ft tall spirit which is staring down at the avatar. It bearing its teeth and growling at him. "Oh… Crap Baskets." Immediately after he says this, Heibai rears back and roars at him, it's roar sounding like a cacophony of screams rather than anything animalistic. From its mouth the scream illuminates the area in spiritual light disturbing the dust and dirt beneath him. Zuko flinches, bringing his leg and arm up to shield his body from the ethereal scream attack from Heibai. Once the screaming stops Zuko hesitantly opens his eye and lowers his arm and foot. "Um… H-hi." Zuko greets, not knowing what to do, a few dozen yards behind him, Sokka hits his forehead with his pal.
"He's dead." Sokka says in all confidence as all hell breaks loose around the town.
Immediately after the statement from Zuko, Heibai shifts across the ground as if phasing out of reality and sliding forwards. The gigantic creature slamming its larger pair of arms on someone's home before blitzing another house. It swipes the hope away with a single swing before unleashing another ethereal scream destroying another house and toppling the guard tower that was barely still standing. If this monster wasn't destroying the town they were in, Sokka might find the fact that Zuko is currently chasing around this giant spirit monster yelling at it trying to get Heibai to listen to him. In fact he is actually finding it rather difficult not to laugh as Zuko repeatedly shouts "Hey!" or "Listen to me!" or "I'm the Avatar!" as he runs about following Heibai.
"Rrrraaaaaggghhh! WILL YOU JUST LISTEN TO ME YOU STUPID SPIRIT!" Zuko roars, throwing a heavy handed punch and launching a fireball at the best. The orange and yellow flames cascade about the moving ball of fire as it flies through the air before hitting the giant right hind leg of Heibai in the calf muscle.
The flames slam into the spirit's leg before dissipating into the night air causing Heibai to pause and stop his destruction for a moment. Zuko held his fighting stance, his fists raised in an defensive manner and held towards Heibai. Faster than he could react, Heibai turns and slams one of its smaller arms into Zuko, sending him flying. The young avatar grunting in pain from the impact. Katara and Aang gasp from the strike that Heibai sent Zuko's way but Sokka on the other hand reacts differently.
"That flame-brained idiot is going to get himself killed!" Sokka yells before grabbing his whalebone club and boomerang. The water tribesman hops the ledge of the window and runs outside to assist Sokka.
"No! Sokka, come back here!" Aang yells rushing after the water tribesman, vaulting over the window following him to assist Zuko. "We can't help here Sokka! Let him handle this!" Aang yells trying to be the voice of reason as the two sprint through the rubble towards Heibai.
The black and white spirit is facing down Zuko as he struggles to get back up, still reeling from the swipe, and isn't aware of Sokka or Aang approaching. Not wanting Zuko to get killed by the spirit, Sokka does the only sensible thing in his mind, pulling his boomerang from his back and flinging it towards the giant spirit. The whalebone weapon flits through the air right towards the spirit, before harmlessly bouncing off of its rear end and falling to the floor. Ceasing its forward aggression towards Zuko, Heibai pauses for a moment before suddenly spinning and blitzing both Aang and Sokka. Neither could react in time to even try to get out of its way as the pair found the creatures' large hands wrapping around their bodies and snatching them off the ground. Zuko gasps in horror as Heibai grabs both Aang and Sokka before quickly standing up and rushing towards the spirit.
The avatar sprays fire from his feet to propel himself along the ground closing the gap quickly. Heibai however takes off running out of the town and back towards the forest from whence it came. Forcing the avatar to grab Aang's glider staff that he had dropped when fighting Heibai. Pressing the release for the orange fans to extend outwards Zuko assumes the same position Aang has taught him in their journey and boards the glider. He pulls his hand from the grip above his head before spraying a burst of fire towards the dirt to assist with speed as he tries to catch up with the spirit that had taken his friends hostage. "ZUKO! HELP!" Sokka yells as Zuko continues to air bend under the glider flying towards the escaping spirit. Due to his taller frame than Aang. Zuko's feet protrude outwards further than the back blades of the glider making it difficult for him to fly it straight. However, replicating what he did on the ground to gain speed, Zuko fire bends through his feet underneath the tree line making sure not to get the flames too close to the underbrush or low hanging limbs. This decision to combo Airbending and Firebending simultaneously compensates for his lack of skill with the glider and gives him the boost he needs in order to catch up.
Despite the dire situation he's in, Aang is impressed with his pupil's resourcefulness in his attempt to save them. As the gap gets closer and closer, Zuko darts between sides of Heibai trying to decide between Aang or Sokka. A position he didn't want to be in and a choice he didn't want to make. In a split second decision Zuko tries reaching for Sokka as the older of the two manages to get a hand free. Heibai continues sprinting through the forest, coming to the clearing of where the forest was destroyed by the firebenders previously. A bright ethereal blue light envelopes all of them just as Zuko manages to grab onto Sokka's wrist. Heibai seemingly disappears leaving Zuko to fly uncontrolled and like a rocket into a large totem pole in the center of the burned down forest. He slams hard into the depiction of a panda and plumets to the ground falling unconscious due to the crash and fall.
Zuko awakens hours later, clueless to where Heibai had taken both Aang and Sokka. The defeated avatar slowly makes his walk back to the town where the battle had taken place. He picks up the glider staff that had fallen away from him in the crash and drags it haphazardly behind him as he makes the long trek back to the village. Internally he was cursing himself for his failure against Heibai and his failure to save both Sokka and Aang. He was dreading what Katara would say when he got back, part of him thought she'd kill him. That thought was only momentary, she wasn't crazy enough to kill him. Especially since there is no air nation to be born into again should he die. That there begged the question in his mind as his thoughts wandered. If he died would Aang become the next avatar since he's the only airbender left? His thoughts are interrupted when he hears the village elder speaking with Katara. The girl's folded form sitting under what's left of the ruined gate, in a position that insinuates she had been crying.
"Don't worry Katara, your brother and friend are in the care and capable hands of the Avatar. They'll return soon." The elder explains, wrapping Katara in a blanket to stave off the cold of the morning air.
"Katara? I-I'm sorry. I couldn't save them." Zuko says averting eye contact from her but the response never comes.
"Thank you, I'm sure they'll return soon." She says, her voice still shaky from the experience and from her past tears. The elder turned and returned to his duties with the rest of the townspeople.
"Can you hear me? Katara! You better not be playing some stupid trick on me!" Zuko yells but once again he's seemingly ignored. As he stands there wondering why he is being ignored. He notices Momo fly over and land nearby before crawling up into Katara's arms.
"Hey Momo, Aang, Lee and Sokka will be back soon. Maybe they'll even bring you back some litchi nuts too." She coaxes the small lemur as she gets up from her spot on the ground and turns away.
"Hey! Knock if off already! I'm right here dammit!" Zuko yells reaching out towards Katara but his hand phases through her causing him to trip and fall. The avatar now wondering what the hell is going on quickly notices something. His hand is not only blue but he can also see through it. "Oh… that's not good… I'm in the spirit world." He says to himself, feeling his heart sink in his chest. "Crap crap crap crap crap crap crap this is bad. THIS IS REALLY BAD!" Zuko yells to himself as he paces back and forth between the two sides of what's left of the city gate. "Oh Help us, Avatar. Keep the big bad spirit monster from eating us." he says to himself, mocking the pleas of the villagers. "I just had to go and be the good guy didn't I? Now, I'm dead or a spirit or... or... I don even fucking know anymore. Ugh! Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!" He continues to rant, palming his incorporeal fist into his head repeatedly. "I don't even know why I can still stand on the ground. I phased through Katara trying to get her attention. Of course I get stuck in these stupid situations. I swear, this is the last time I fight an Agni-damn spirit monster. You hear me!" He yells into the abyss, but no one actually hears him.
He stands there in this incorporeal spirit form for a few moments before slumping against the crumbling wall with a thud. His body is not even disturbing the dirt on the ground. He exhales a breath of frustration before slapping himself in the forehead with his palm again before dragging it down his face. As he stares out at the clearing of the road, something catches his eye. Near the top of the curved branches is a twinkling light off in the distance. He stares in wonder at this shining entity as it gets bigger and bigger. As it continues to get larger, Zuko begins to be able to make out the details of the entity approaching him: large tendril-like whiskers over a bearded face, a set of wide batlike wings, and a snake-like body that slithers through the air as it flies. "I just had to open my big mouth. Didn't I?" Zuko asks rhetorically as he recognises this spirit as a Dragon.
Reacting predictably, Zuko takes off running away from the dragon while quickly trying to open Aang's staff. The now blue fan blades extend with Zuko jumping off the ground trying to get airborne. He couldn't even get the glider off the ground as it doesn't catch any wind and he faceplants into the dirt. "I can't bend in the spirit world!" Zuko says to himself wide eyed with shock and trepidation. His only choice now was to face this supposed threat head on. Knowing the wooden staff would only act as kindling against a dragon, Zuko plants the staff hard into the ground before turning and facing the beast. Balling up his fists to try to seem imposing, he instead flinches when the dragon lands in front of him. Knowing that he's completely outmatched by the creature, Zuko instead flinches and covers his face with his arm and his body with his raised leg. However what he was waiting for never came as, instead, the dragon maneuvers one of its whiskers closer to him and touches his head with it.
Feeling its whisker touch the temple of his head, Zuko suddenly feels memories and meanings being implanted in his mind. He could see the image of a burning comet streaking about the sky and the statue of Avatar Roku. When the whisker moves away from his temple, Zuko relaxes and converses with the dragon. "You're Avatar Roku's dragon. Fang." The creature nods at the mention of its name. "Is there anyway I can talk with Roku? I could really use his help." He asks, prompting the spirit dragon to lean its head down and allow Zuko to climb aboard its back. He is careful not to step on Fang's horns as he climbs up the dragon's mane and takes a seat on a gap between two dorsal scales along its back. Standing back up to his full height, Fang extends his wings and takes off, a single flap strong enough to propel the spirit into the air at speeds far outpacing Appa.
Sitting on the back of Fang, Zuko feels a strange yet familiar nostalgia about being on the back of the dragon. He not only felt safe, but he felt as if this was something he was longing to do for as long as he could remember. Though, he finds it was odd to be moving this quickly and feel no movement from the air. From the back of Fang, the Avatar looks out at the world, watching as miles fly by beneath him. He watches as the ship he called home for the past three years comes into view at a port near the village where he and the others are at before it vanishes behind him due to Fang's incredible speed. In the brief instance he saw the men on the deck, he could have sworn he saw his uncle looking up at him. He continues to watch as the land turns to sea and then over the blockade that surrounds the Fire Nation mainland.
Just minutes after crossing the blockade of navy ships, Zuko spots Crescent Island ahead of him and Fang. The creature's speed increases as they near the island of Roku. The temple dedicated to Roku sat atop a volcano dozens of floors high with the traditional and old architecture that Zuko grew up around. Fang darts through the open entrance door and above the fire sages entering for the day before bounding into the center room and flying straight up. "WE'RE GONNA CRASH INTO THE ROOF!" Zuko yells in surprise as Fang flies into the ceiling but the two phase straight through it. As he opens his eyes, he sees the antechamber of the temple of Roku. "That was... odd." He monologues, patting himself down, making sure that his body or spirit is intact. Infront of him in the center of the wall of flames is a solid gold statue of his predecessor. Underneath him, the symbol of the sun is under his feet decorating the floor. He walks towards the statue and notices the intricate details of his predecessor, all the way down to the fibers of his beard.
"Roku?" Zuko questions but gets no answer. "Fang brought me here to speak with you so… h-hello uhm… I'm Zuko." He introduces himself to the statue but gets no answer in response. "Okay, what gives? You showed me that he wanted to speak, and we're here. Is he just busy or something? When can I talk to him?"
Answering his question, the dragon lowers its head revealing a sun stone on the wall, light being emitted from it projecting onto the wall near Roku. "When is the light going to reach him? Wait a second how did you block the light? We don't have shadows." Zuko questions and the dragon answers him by placing a whisker against his head again. This time it reveals a new image, the sun moves across the sky above the temple and then the light moves about the moon. It repeats this moment several times before finally landing on the statue. "What do you mean on the solstice?! It's tomorrow!" Zuko protests but the dragon doesn't say anything. "Alright, fine. We need to get back to my body. I need to help the village, and get Aang and Sokka back." He says quickly as he jumps onto the back of Fang and the dragon.
The return trip back to his body was even faster than the journey to Roku's temple. The dragon swoops up high in the sky before dive bombing onto where Zuko's body is. The teen's physical body is seated upon the same totem pole he crashed into the night before with Aang's staff laid across his lap. The dragon flies him straight back into himself and vanishes into the aether as Zuko awakens from his journey into the spirit world. His eyes flutter open upon getting back to his body, and he leaps off the wooden totem pole in the woods. As he lands, he takes note of the creature; a panda depicted at the top of the pole with trees and other wildlife underneath it. In the common script is scrawled, "The Spirit of Black and White" at the base of the totem pole. This gives him an idea. For the next several minutes, he digs about the ash, finding dozens of acorns and pocketing them. After finding a few dozen, he decides to head back to the village. He spins open Aang's glider and takes off the ground with a firebending assisted take off.
Seeing a bright fire move across the sky, Katara runs out of the town hall to see Zuko coming in for a landing. She cringes as he comes in too fast and crash lands into a debris pile near where Heibai had his rampage the previous night, kicking up dust and debris from the crash. He sits up and rubs his head from the force of the impact as the villagers run over to greet him once more. "Lee! Did you find them?! Did you find Aang and Sokka?!" Katara yells out as she rushes over to the slightly worse for wear Avatar, who is still dusting himself off from his crash landing.
"They were taken to the spirit world, Heibai seems to be appearing from the totem pole dedicated to him and his forest. He brought me there as well, but I'll have to fill you in on it later. I know how to defeat Heibai." He announces, walking out of the broken down house he crash landed in. "I'm going to have to distract him long enough to show him the acorns I found in the forest."
"The spirit knows we are hiding in the town hall. It's likely that he will attack there next. How do you plan on keeping them safe then?" Katara questions as Zuko walks with her and some of the other villagers back to the main building.
"I'll trap him with a wall of fire. I haven't used that technique before but I should be able to at least put up a wall in front of the building, keeping him from attacking it." Zuko responds, Katara has her objections about this idea, but she isn't able to voice them as the sun starts to go down below the horizon.
Katara and the rest of the villagers funnel into the town hall once more, leaving Zuko alone. The young Avatar walked towards the center of the village and waited patiently for Heibai to return once again. Zuko looks down at his pocket full of acorns for a moment, hoping that his plan would work. As the sun gets lower and lower in the sky, he feels his power waning as it slowly becomes evening and then night. Tightening his fists and standing with confidence against the oncoming threat, Zuko watches as Heibai appears from the shadows of the night cast forest beyond the village crumbling wall. He scowls seeing the beast once more, his scarred eye nearly squinting closed from the expression. Heibai makes his presence known to the rest of the villagers by letting loose one of his ethereal screams and blowing down another partially destroyed building.
Heibai's attention is drawn towards the main hall in his search for more people to abduct, finding that the houses he's been attacking have been vacant. Zuko stands before him defiantly as the spirit approaches. It growls in an otherworldly mix of guttural low growls and higher pitched screams. The young Avatar notices the light from within the spirit's mouth. Suddenly Heibai charges forwards, becoming incorporeal for a moment and managing to slip past Zuko and near to the city hall. Cursing under his breath, Zuko bursts off the ground with a slight use of firebending from his feet once more and gets to the side of the spirit. Clenching his fingers into curled claw-like gestures, Zuko leans forwards and sprays fire all along the ground in front of Heibai. He then stands and throws an open palmed strike towards the air causing the flames that lined against the ground to lift into a short wall only a few feet high.
The spirit roars loudly seeing the fire in front of it before turning menacingly towards Zuko. The slight smirk that had been present on his face when he managed to stop Heibai in his tracks disappears as he sees it shift towards him. This strike was even harder than the first time that Heibai struck him. The angry spirit slammed its larger forelimb into his stomach and chest, sending him flying. The strike was so violent Zuko vomited upon being struck with Heibai's fist. He slams hard into one of the larger sections of wall that was still standing before bouncing off of it and landing face first on the dirt, his body aching from the force of the blow.
Inside the town hall, Katara watches on in horror as Zuko's plan fails before he could get it into motion. Thinking quickly, she backs the villagers away from the doors as Heibai approaches them once more. As she's ushering the villagers back, a slight glow catches her eye. Looking back at Zuko, she sees him push up on one hand and to a doubled over position holding his ribs with his other arm. Though she can't see his eyes from where she is, she sees the ground where Zuko would be looking flicker a white ethereal blue for a brief moment. The shaved head of the ponytail sporting teen moves and looks up towards the town hall, his eyes once again flickering that same bluish white again. Her attention is brought away from the Avatar as the thunderous cracking of the wood ceiling above her fills the air. The shingles and wood beams shatter and splinter as Heibai slams through the roof of the town hall. The debris pinned Katara as well as one of the village children who was too close to the door when Heibai struck the ceiling. She's forced to watch helplessly as Heibai extends his smaller prehensile forearms towards her, wrapping around her waist and torso before dragging her out of the debris. In the hand opposite her she sees the young boy that had also been pinned is now in the grasp of Heibai.
The waterbender girl prays to the ocean and moon spirits trying to enlist their aid to stop Heibai from abducting her. She closes her eyes and expects the worst. However, a sudden gail of hurricane strength wind whips her hair around and snaps her attention towards the Avatar, his face contorted in a snarled version of his typical scowl with bright blue light emitting from his mouth and eyes. The Avatar ascends into the air, wrapping a tornado around his waist before moving at speeds faster than Katara had ever seen in her life. She barely had time to blink and he was in front of Heibai, staring down at him with that wicked snarled expression of anger on his face. Suddenly, he plunges into the ground, causing a small earthquake that she feels even through Heibai. Taking a wide stance, the Avatar extends both of his hands out to the side of himself as far as they can go before bringing them close to his body and pushing upwards. In tandem with his movements, a wall of earth is driven up from the ground underneath his feet and around them. It grows tens of feet high and encompasses Heibai and cornering him off away from the villagers. Katara now looks on in awe of his awesome power, watching as the dust around them from the debris collects and swirls around his waist once more. The tornado became so strong, even bits of the wood from the destroyed houses are being picked up and spun about in the tornado.
The Avatar raises his hands up towards the air causing more wind to fly towards them from the forest behind him. Thinking that now she will die due to the lack of control the Avatar has over himself, the waterbender woman watches in fear at the display, but a strike never comes. Instead, the tornado around his waist bursts into brilliant orange and yellow fire spinning in the opposite direction of the tornado of air he is floating in. The winds from the forest intensify, moving leaves and trees but not damaging them. Suddenly, Katara feels something hit her on the shoulder, her attention brought to the slight pain of the impact and then to what fell to the ground: an acorn and dozens more being flown around by the storm-strength winds that the Avatar is controlling. Realizing what he's doing, she watches as the winds begin to calm and form a gentle dancing vortex in front of Heibai, dozens of little acorns and leaves dance about the air before the spirit. Heibai, seeing the acorns in front of him, lowers Katara and the little boy to the ground. With the spirit now calmed, the display of the Avatar's might and power ceases with the fire dissipating and the winds dying off, the wall of stone sinks back into the ground from whence it was summoned.
Zuko is left standing at the top of the wall he had created before passing out. Katara tries to run to catch him, but instead he's caught by something else: a large black and fuzzy paw caught the unconscious form of Zuko as he passed out from the use of the Avatar state, gently bringing him to the ground. The original form of the once angry spirit Heibai sets Zuko to the ground gently before sniffing his face and licking him a few times.
"Hu- stop. Stop. Appa, stop!" Zuko snaps awake, seeing the nearly 15-feet tall panda seated on its hind legs looking at him. "What happened? Did I win?"
"You got your butt kicked, then went into the Avatar state when Heibai attacked the city hall. Then, you created a wall of stone and used the air to pull a bunch of these small acorns from the forest and showed them to Heibai," the village elder responds, watching as Heibai walks away from them and out of the gates before disappearing. As soon as he vanishes, a small grove of bamboo grows from the soil and from this grove, the missing townsfolk as well as Aang and Sokka walk out of the bamboo.
"SOKKA!" Katara yells upon seeing her brother, running up to embrace him. "Are you okay? How do you feel?" She questions, hoping he's alright.
"How do I feel?" He repeats before feeling his stomach grumble uncomfortably, "Like I really need to go to the bathroom!" He announces before running off to go relieve himself.
"I knew you could do it, Zuko." Aang announced completely forgetting about his alias.
"You blew it." Zuko responds while being helped up by one of the men of the village. "But we need to move, we need to go to Crescent Island. I have to talk to Avatar Roku by the end of the winter solstice."
"That's today!" Aang shouts in surprise upon realizing how short a time frame they have.
"If we leave now, we can get to my ship and have my uncle charter us through Fire Nation waters and to Crescent Island. If we fly there, we'll be shot out of the sky." He explains before turning to the townsfolk. "I'm sorry for using the fake name, but I must ask you not to tell anyone my real one."
"It is quite alright, young Avatar. We've heard rumors of you–not your name, but tales of the good firebender," the village elder responds. "Before you leave, if you need anything, please ask."
"We could use some supplies and some money," Sokka answers bluntly before being punched by his sister. "What? We need stuff."
"It will only take us a few moments to gather everything we can offer. Thank you for saving our village, Avatar Zuko. We'll continue to spread the word about the good firebender." The elder bows as another man hands Sokka a bag of food, clothes, and a small pouch of coins.
Aang tries to thank them for the supplies, but they're ushered away by the village elder. Their next step is to find Zuko's ship and sneak into the Fire Nation.