Some time later we are sitting on Appa's back looking down on the air temple we were approaching.
"I can't wait to see how things have changed since I've been gone." Aang mutters.
Once we arrive we begin exploring the grounds as Aang gets progressively more depressed. Intending to cheer him up I walk over to the air ball posts. "Hey Aang, what're these for?"
"Oh, that's for an air bender game, air ball. Come on, I'll show you how to play!"
Once we both position ourselves we begin tossing the ball back and forth between the strangely sturdy wooden posts. Initially Aang takes an early lead as I hadn't practiced with my air bending yet. After his third time scoring we reach a stalemate of deflecting the ball away from the goals and occasionally trying to directly blast each other off the posts. With our exchange of blows I begin slowly gaining an advantage over him as I score my first point.
Feeling the pressure building Aang starts taking a more aggressive approach putting most of his attention to preventing me from being able to move freely. While his plan did bear fruit it ended up backfiring because, it allowed me to grasp the movements of air bending much quicker. I broke out from his offense and managed to score again.
After that last exchange Aang was only able to prevent me from scoring for a short while. Eventually the game ended with my shout, "Sokka 10, Aang 3!"
"That was pretty impressive Sokka. If I didn't know any better I would have thought you were already an air bending master. Next time you won't be so lucky though."
"We'll see. Anyway, before we go, was there something else you wanted to check out before we leave?"
"Yeah, they're was a secret chamber the monks told me about. They said that when I'm ready there will be someone inside that I need to meet. I think now is as good a time as any to check it out."
"Do you really think someone survived inside that room for hundred years though?" Katara asks.
"I survived inside a glacier for a hundred years, so it's not impossible."
"He's got a point." I shrug.
We make our way to the door for the statue chamber. Before Aang starts talking I air bend the door open. Walking inside I examine the statues. "These are statues of your past lives. The last one is Roku. The first one probably isn't even here." I separate from them as I jump up the floors in search of the oldest Avatar statue.
Reaching the first one it turns out to be some random dude I don't even know. Shrugging I drop back down to the ground floor landing with a brief gust of wind. "The first isn't here. The number of statues is still quite insane though."
Before anyone can respond a shadow behind looming into the room. Katara and Aang take cover behind some statues as I stare at the slowly approaching lemur.
"It's a lemur guys." I use air bending to pull the lemur to me with no chance at escape. Once I get him close enough I grab ahold of his tail. "You are mine now, your name is now George. Together we shall overcome all adversity."
Aang comes over and pets the little guy, "I've always wanted a lemur as a pet."
"What a cute little guy." Katara pets George.
"Well, let's get going. Maybe we'll have better luck at other temples." I begin heading back to Appa.
"Yeah, I guess..." Aang follows along with George on his shoulder.
On our way to Appa something strange picks up in the wind. The sudden phenomenon grabbing Aang's attention, drawing his gaze to a particular building. He begins wandering towards it seemingly on autopilot as his eyes glaze over.
"Welp..." I whisper as I follow behind him, *I guess this was destined to happen the moment we stepped foot in the temple. I should've manufactured some way to avoid coming here entirely. At least Zuko probably didn't need to go to port for repairs allowing him to keep his whole crew.*
Aang stumbled upon the skeleton of Gyatso, triggering his Avatar state. Katara taking the helm to calm him down, probably saying the same stuff as in cannon but I couldn't hear most of it. Only once Aang started lowering was I able to hear the last of what she was saying.
"We'll never let anything bad happen to you Aang, we're your family now."
"Yeah, we're family now." I join in the Aang comforting hug.
After he has time to cry it out we depart, the world now aware of the Avatar's return.
Using a map I draw a route for us to follow to reach the north pole with reasonably spaced out stops for camping. "So, I was thinking we head straight to the north pole, with Appa's speed it should only take us about a week. With that in mind it might be fine to make a stop or two along the way. How's that sound guys?" I toss the map between them.
Aang is the first to grab it. "Well, I was thinking we could go here next." The spot he points at being about a day east of my second camp site.
"Let me guess, it's to ride the koi." I glare at him, to which a bashfully scratches the back of his head.
"Good guess."
I sigh, "I suppose it's fine, but let's try to keep the rest of our stops within a reasonable distance, I'm not much a fan of wasting a lot of time."
"Sure thing!"
After setting our next stop for Kyoshi island I redraw our route, noticing that we'll be passing through Haru's village and not too far from Jet's little setup near Gaipan. Also, that stupid village with the spirit attack. This new information making me groan.
*I'll just skip some nights of sleep to deal with those side issues. I'm not going to let Aang or Katara side track us with their slow method of dealing with them. My energy bending will make super short work of that panda monster.*
A couple days later we find ourselves landing on Kyoshi island. "Alright, have fun with your koi, Imma find some locals." Not waiting for their response I rush inland. In about a minute I bump into some Kyoshi warriors who decide to fight first ask questions later.
I flip away just before one of the girls lands where I was prior. "I don't mind dancing with you ladies." I decide to use fire bending to egg them on.
"Fire bender!" they shout.
Two of them charge me together, one throwing their fan at me as a distraction while there other tries to sweep kick my legs.
I let myself get swept off my feet, falling to my back, a Kyoshi warrior falling through the air to pin me down. Smirking I exhale a torrent of flame from my mouth before performing a windmill kick and jumping back to my feet.
Taking stock of our brief exchange I see one warrior still trying to pat the fire out on her battle dress while the others take out some fans that open up to shields.
"If you come at me one at a time I'll abstain from using my bending."
Ignoring my offer four of them charge at me. Sighing I create three flame walls and maintain them, separating the warriors and successfully isolating one of them to engage in single combat.
Exchanging blows for a minute I managed to copy her own moves and manage to pin her to the ground. "Hmm... I expected more." Using earth bending I bind her to the ground with stone covering her mouth so she can't alert her teammates.
Walking through a wall of fire I approach two warriors. "Please do keep me entertained." They rush me and manage to give me a little challenge as a pair but in the end I knock one unconscious and pin the other to the ground in a similar fashion to the first girl. Lowering my flame walls the remaining girls present take this as a blessing in disguise and try to take me down together. They pose no difficulty to me especially since I decided to continue using my fire bending.
I knocked each of them remaining girls unconscious and bind them to the ground.
I approach the first girl, raising her up with her bindings and uncovering her mouth. "You're the Avatar. Why didn't you tell us? We're the Kyoshi warriors. We've been hoping for the day of your return."
"I'm sure. What is your name?" I release her from her bindings entirely.
"Suki, I'm the leader of the Kyoshi warriors."
Releasing the rest of the girls I decide to make an offer. "Suki, tell me, what would you say were I to give you the ability to air bend?"
"I didn't think the Avatar could do that, but I would of course be deeply indebted to you."
"Normally an Avatar cannot give someone bending, but I've stumbled on an ancient form of bending from before we would bend the elements, a form of bending that will allow me to awaken one's latent bending ability, among other things. I just haven't had anyone to practice on before. Would you be willing to be my first?"
"Uuhm, I don't know, it sounds kind of, unpredictable."
While Suki hesitates one of the other conscious girls comes forward, "I'll do it! I've always wanted to be a bender!"
"Much obliged. Now, would you please kneel, you might feel faint after I'm done."
Once she's on her knees I begin the process. This is my first attempt so it takes a moment for me to get it started. I feel around her spirit and compare to my own and try to guess my way through giving her air bending. While in this state I also feel around until I find out that I can guide or even force her emotions.
I do nothing with her emotions at this time and stop bending her spirit. "I think that should do it." I say taking a step back.
She falls to her side and shakily brings herself to her feet. "I feel, different, it's like there's something there that I always knew about but just didn't recognize until now." Steadying herself she throws a fist forward causing the earth to shoot out from underneath her into a small spike.
"Alright, I think I got enough in me to do that three more times. You sure you don't want to take my offer Suki?"
"I'll do it." She gets on her knees in front of me. I take my time this time looking to pass on air bending and to mess with her emotions. I try to feel my way around to giving her strong feelings of love or at least attraction to myself.
*We'll see how well this worked if she decides to join us on our travels.* Once done she manages to stand with fairly little difficulty. Throwing a fist forward she produces a gust of wind that ruffles the hair of everyone present.
I stumble when I try to walk nearly falling over as Suki catches me, supporting my weight with her body. "Thanks. This takes more out of me than I expected."
While trying to regain balance and separate from her she suddenly tightens her grip. "Oh no, the pleasure is all mine. Please, allow me to show you to the village. They'd be more than happy to see you after all these years without an Avatar."
*Oops, might have over done it a bit, not that I'm complaining. I should do it more subtly in the future, other people could potentially pick up on it.*
"I'd be happy to see the village but I gotta make my way to the northern water tribe. I'm in need of a proper water bending master." I manage to free myself from her grasp.
Suki looks at me going through a flurry of conflicted emotions on her face before it looks like a light bulb came on in her head. "You wouldn't happen to know any air bending masters would you?"
"You're in luck, I happen to be quite adept at air bending. You could even say I'm a master." I play it cool, not cringe at all.
"Then maybe I can come with you to the north pole and learn air bending from you!"
"I don't mind, meet me at the beach in half an hour, my friends should be there and I can introduce you. Also, please try to keep my arrival here a secret, I don't want the fire nation to catch wind that I passed through here, they'd never leave you alone."
I leave the warriors to their own devices as I return just in time to see Aang hyperventilating on the beach in Katara's arms. "I see you meet the unagi, the locals apparently feed it foreign spies."
"So that's what that thing was, it's not fun." Aang composes himself and gets dressed again.
"So, what were you doing?" Katara asks.
"Y'know, making new friends, finding a lone air bender that needs a master and I invited to join us. The usual." I shrug.
"Wait, an air bender! This is great news. That means that they haven't gotten all the air benders!" Aang rushes getting his clothes on. "I can't wait to meet them! Are they a boy or girl? Our age? younger? older?"
Before Aang can go further Suki arrives on the beach, "she's me." She makes her way to me hooking her arm around mine.
"This is Suki, she'll be tagging along with us. We'll also be departing a bit early. The island is neutral in the war and I don't want to bring the fire nation here, they don't deserve to be dragged into a losing battle against their will."
"Isn't he just so considerate." Suki says staring dreamily at my face.
"Yeah.... Nice to meet you Suki. I'm Sokka's sister, Katara, and this is Aang." Katara eyes me suspiciously.
Clearing my throat I hop into Appa's saddle with Suki. "If we leave now we can reach a good spot to setup camp by evening."