Author's Notes: Thanks for the great reviews so far, everyone. Now, at first, this story may seem a lot like the show, but as time goes on things will change.

Edit 7/3/20: I know I said I wasn't going to change anything else in the story beyond the prologue, but I wanted to make the introductory chapters, at least, a little more palatable for new readers. Nothing major changed - I just cleaned up some sentences, fixed some grammatical issues, added more description, changed some awkward scenes, and tried to make the dialogue flow better.

Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar: The Last Airbender and I am in no way associated with the creators of the show.

Book 1: Fire

Chapter 1: The Boy in the Volcano

Uncle had told her once, years ago when she cared for stories such as these, that the twin volcanoes began protecting the island after the last firebenders had been taken. The villagers on her island simply called them the Twins, or even the Sisters, because the last two firebenders happened to be such a pair (and beautiful ones he knew in his youth, if Uncle was to be believed). Stalwart defenders that stood on opposite sides of the island, it was said that they began erupting the very next day after they had been taken from its shores, steadily draining lava into the sea for all the years since with no sign of stopping. The Water Tribes didn't dare to approach, too afraid of the poison sea to reach the village nestled in the valley between the Twins.

Her uncle had believed that the volcano spirits protected their little island, but the Water Tribes had proved him wrong not long after that. That had been when she stopped listening to his stories.

The raven-haired girl sighed at her brother as she chased him through the dense jungle, pushing aside dewy palm fronds as they ventured further and further from established trails. He refused to listen to her taunts about him being an incompetent hunter, which only seemed to spur him on. She didn't even know why she came out here to hunt with him, her sense of irritation growing like a stoked flame when sweat dripped from her brow. Her face twisted into a grimace as she and her brother continued to chase their elusive prey. They nearly had a whole village to feed, so couldn't they get a break?

"Zuzu, you really need to work on your hunting skills, you know that?" she said to her older brother. She came across an ancient statue of one of her tribal ancestors, just a giant head now, cradled in the crook of a massive tree's roots, the trunk high above her. It wore a placid smile that taunted her just as she taunted her brother. "Zuzu, where are you?" she sang.

"Shut up, Azula!" he whispered, his voice a harsh whisper. And then she saw him crouched in the foliage, his broadswords held out as he watched the rabbit-fowl standing on a pile of vivid green leaves bigger than both of its predators' heads.

"You can't hunt an animal like that with broadswords, dum-dum. You've got to be kidding me," she said with a dramatic sigh. At the sound of her voice, the animal dashed away again with a squawk.

"You let it get away again!" he yelled in frustration to her, running after it.

"I bet I can get it before you," she challenged with a smirk, running alongside him as they ran. She gripped her bow, made from strips of bamboo, and ensured she still had her arrows in the sling at her back. In her hands it wasn't much more use than his broadswords, but she didn't need to remind him of that. Breaths filled her lungs as she tended to her inner flame in preparation for their little contest that she knew he wouldn't turn down. The air was heavy and moist, carrying the rich scents of wet soil and something floral.

His golden eyes narrowed. "You're on."

Her smirk grew wider as the two ran through the trees and the dense underbrush, avoiding the gnarled roots with practiced ease, neither of them taking their scrutinizing golden gazes off of their prey. They followed it over a clear river, balancing delicately on a tree that had fallen across it. Zuko almost fell when the animal diverted its course toward the mangroves along the river's edge, but recovered in time to avoid falling in the water. Azula grinned in triumph over her better sense of balance, but stopped short when she noticed they had been heading up a progressively steeper incline.

Azula looked up at the long mountain pass stretched before her. The foolish creature ran right up the rocky, dangerous road through the mountains. Even Uncle didn't know what lay beyond.

"You go first," Azula dared her brother.

"What? No, this place is forbidden, you know that!" he said, taking a cautious step back.

"Aw, my big brother is trying to abide by the rules like a good little boy," she said in a mock-baby voice. "Honoring Uncle's rules, like always. It's not like the place'll explode!"

"What are you talking about? That's where the volcano is. You know what those are, don't you? They explode," he said to her, arms crossed. She thought he looked like a petulant child.

"Well, I don't know about you, but I'm not gonna give up chasing that annoying little creature so soon. I'm going in," she said, setting her jaw and leading the way up the mountain slope, the one the village called the elder sister (though Azula could never figure out why, or how they could tell. Weren't they supposed to be twins?). Vegetation grew much sparser here, unable to pierce the blackened earth blanketing the soil. Uncle had said that one day all kinds of things would grow here, as this would make the soil much more fertile over time. But that day hadn't come yet.

Zuko groaned. "Why do you have to be like this? If you die, it's not my fault," he said. Azula just laughed to herself in a way that she hoped demonstrated bravado.

The siblings walked forward slowly as the heavy, rotten smell of sulfur hung in the air. The heat rolled over them in waves, causing even more sweat to fall from their brows. Azula looked up at the sun as if trying to convince herself that, as a firebender, the heat shouldn't bother her this much, but even as the thought crossed her mind she envied Zuko and his sleeveless vest. Zuko wore dark red trimmed with yellow and black boots. He couldn't have been much cooler than her, she told herself, in a thin short-sleeved robe with the same color scheme and a yellow sash tying it together at her waist.

After a few minutes of walking, they came to an opening in the path where steam and hot gases belched from vents in the earth with hisses. Azula had to remind herself that there wouldn't be any ferret-snakes up here.

She walked forward without pausing while Zuko stopped behind her. "Coming?" she asked him, looking over her shoulder.

"Are you crazy? It's only getting even more dangerous. By now, the thing's probably fried," he told her. "Either that, or it left already," he muttered under his breath.

"Let's keep looking. This place is pretty intriguing," she said. He hesitantly stepped forward, and when he did, a jet of steam shot from the ground right in front of him. "Zuko!" she yelled, running over back to where he stood, narrowly dodging another spurt of the scalding air. "Zuko!" she called again, unable to see him. Her heart pounded in a frantic rhythm as she searched all around and avoided blasts of steam and smells that made her feel nauseous. She felt ready to choke; the sulfur seemed everywhere, in her lungs, stinging her eyes...

"ZUKO!" she shouted, her voice betraying anguish. No, he couldn't be gone, this was all her fault, she made him come... He was practically all she had left... She threw her arms up into the air, pulling them down again as she shouted for her brother with a stomp of her foot. "Zuko, stop hiding! You have to be here!"

A crack as loud as thunder ripped through the rock wall next to her, causing her to jump back with fright. Magma surged from the gaping wound like blood, forcing her to scramble away and further up the mountain pass to avoid being burned or worse. A red glow pulsed from within the crack like a heartbeat. The gap widened and the earth rumbled as if the Sister bellowed in pain. Azula's eyes widened when a shaft of white light erupted from within the wound, blinding in its intensity and unlike anything she had ever seen before.

"Azula!" a familiar voice called out. Relief washed over her when she saw a pale hand reach up from the cliffside, gripping the rock as he tried to pull himself back onto solid ground. She thanked Agni for perhaps the first time in her life, grateful that he had managed to grab hold of something as he fell. She ran over to pull him up, and with their combined efforts, Zuko climbed back on the mountain pass and they retreated far from the rapidly cooling lava, panting with exertion.

She fell to her knees and gave a weak laugh. "Zuzu, you're such an idiot, falling like that..."

"What did you do?" he asked, looking over to the cracked rock which still webbed across the side of the mountain. What would happen if the Sister opened up and unleashed all of her rage? This side of the mountain faced the ocean, but that sort of thing still couldn't bode well for their village in the valley.

"W-wait, you think I did that?" she asked with shock. She regained her composure and narrowed her eyes. "Not possible. Firebenders can't bend lava no matter how good they are."

"You're the only crazy bender around here that I know," he answered, throwing his hands up in the air. The wall exploded outward, thankfully far enough from both of them that the convection didn't burn. The magma surged within and a gargantuan semi-translucent stone toppled out, like a ruby orb, rapidly cooling as it became exposed to the air. Zuko shouted in alarm and turned to her as if she had all the answers. "What is that thing?"

Azula narrowed her eyes when she saw the dark shapes inside the stone. "Wait… there's someone inside?" She pushed herself to her feet and walked over to it, curiosity winning over caution, and examined the fiery red stone closely. What kind of material was this? The person inside of the stone had their legs crossed and their fists pointed into each other, with glowing white arrows on the backs of their hands and on the forehead. The figure seemed bald. "What the...?"

And then the eyes opened, glowing just as bright as the stone and the arrows.

Azula let out a small gasp. "He's alive! We've got to do something," she said to her brother. She widened her stance, holding out one hand. Her palm faced the stone as she braced her wrist with her other hand, and taking a deep breath, she forced her energy into it. A ball of flame shot out of her hand, but it did nothing to the stone.

"Azula! It could be dangerous!" Zuko yelled at his sister. Even from what they could see, the stone was bigger than any statue in or around their village, with much of it still concealed inside the mountain. The magma that had gushed out of it already began hardening into volcanic rock. Azula kept blasting the stone with fire, but it did nothing until hot air burst from a crack in it, pushing her back. Zuko caught and braced her as more cracks split the rock with all the fury and noise of a typhoon. One huge rift split it up the middle and smoke and steam flooded their vision, broken only by a brilliant white radiance that shot straight up into the air.


A wooden ship cut through the currents offshore, navigating through the choppy waters of the island chain with caution and precision. It sailed with blue masts that had a giant silver orb in the middle—the insignia of the Water Tribes.

A boy, deeply tanned with brown hair shaved on the sides and a warrior's wolf tail pulling it back, gasped when he saw a shaft of white light reaching into the sky from one of the islands they had passed.

"Finally," he said to himself, narrowing his icy blue eye. The other eye was missing; carved out years ago and leaving only a vertical scar over the socket where it had been before. He turned to the old woman who sat cross-legged on the deck not far from him. "Grandmother, do you realize what this means?"

The old woman sat calmly, playing a game of Pai Sho with the cook and eating seal biscuits. "I won't be able to finish my game and biscuits?" She had grey hair, and her face was lined with age, but she was as equally tanned as her grandson. She wore lighter, breezier clothes in Water Tribe blues while her grandson wore heavier leather wolf armor despite the heat.

He scowled in irritation. "No, don't be obtuse," he said, turning to the light again. "That light came from only one place—the Avatar!" he said, face set with determination. He looked so much older than he really was.

"Oh, it's probably nothing," his grandmother said with a sigh. "I do think the heat is getting to you, Prince Sokka. Come, sit, and watch me destroy our friend in this game. It's rather challenging, he's gotten better," she said, scratching her chin as she placed down another tile. She cackled with delight. "Ooh, I've got this game! Here, have a biscuit."

"The heat is not getting to me," Sokka said, directing his scowl at her again. He was not going to let her temper his excitement. "I might just finally be able to catch the Avatar! Waterbenders, head a course for the light!"

His grandmother cooled herself with a fan made from palm leaves. "I'm not sure that is the best course," she said. "Volcanoes constantly churn magma into the waters around that island. It makes the water poisonous and the currents treacherous."

Sokka glared. "What do you know of seafaring, woman? I didn't bring you along to give me counsel on things I know better."

His grandmother shrugged, her voice hoarse. "Fine, suit yourself. Man, it's hot."


Azula and Zuko tried waving the smoke away as the beacon died out. When they could see, they spotted the boy trying to push himself out of the rock, his eyes and arrows still glowing. The siblings looked up in amazement.

"Stop!" Zuko said in what Azula assumed was his most threatening voice, regaining his bearings. He held out his swords. The young boy stood up straight. She wondered what Zuko thought he was going to do.

The bright light all around them died out as suddenly as it came and the boy's arrows turned blue as he lost consciousness, falling forward. Azula ran forward and caught him. She laid him down gently on the ground, her arm holding his head up. "How is this possible?" she asked. Could he be something delivered by the spirits?

The boy let out a weak groan.


Aang's eyes twitched as he felt air come into his lungs after so long. His eyes were closed, but he didn't want them to open... He was comfortable, and warm. He didn't feel this truly at ease for such a long time. But then he felt his head lying against stone, and someone moving his body. He weakly opened his eyes.

The first thing he saw was rather nice—two golden eyes peering down at him curiously, with just a hint of cautiousness in them. "Don't look like that," he mumbled. "I'm not dangerous."

"What's he saying?" another voice asked. The deep voice didn't fit the pretty girl.

"I can't tell," the girl shushed the boy. Wait a minute... Golden eyes. Black hair. Eyes as sharp as a hawk's... Azula!

His awareness hit him full force. The first thing he did was thrust his hands forward, producing a mass of air that struck the girl, sending her flying backwards. He stood up with another gust of air, his movements pure reflexes. Azula tumbled down the rocky path. Where am I? What did she do to me? He didn't have time to ponder it - right now he needed action.

"What are you doing?" the deeper voice roared. Next thing he knew, someone attacked him with broadswords—reckless swings that Aang easily dodged. He spun quickly and launched the boy into black volcanic rock that stopped his fall. He got into a stance. No more running from Azula. He decided that a long time ago. Ignoring the boy, who ran toward him again, he ran full speed toward the girl who tumbled down the path. He didn't notice that she lacked her normal cat-like movements and that she was oddly clumsier than usual. He didn't even realize that he wasn't bending any other elements; the air came so easily to him... He pulled back his arm once he gained on the girl, ready to strike her, ready to finally end her...

"STOP!" a voice desperately shouted, and he suddenly felt force against his arm, grabbing him and pulling him back.

Aang looked at him with anger. "Let me go!"

"Leave my sister alone!" the boy yelled. Aang froze. His sister? Now, he finally looked closer at the boy, a little taller than him, maybe around his age. His eyes were just as golden as Azula's. Now he recognized the face. It was Zuko. But he was different.

He had no scar.

What?

His gaze hurriedly switched to Azula. She knelt on the ground, looking up at Aang with fear, but also with the determination to defend herself, hands curled into fists. And then it hit him. This wasn't Azula. It couldn't be. She did not have the coldness, the lack of mercy, or the condescension in her eyes. "I'm sorry," he said, his voice catching in his throat. He couldn't look at her. "I… I thought you were someone else."

"So you attacked her?" Zuko asked him, still full of anger.

"Tell us who you are," Azula demanded. "Those attacks - I couldn't see any of them. Are you... an airbender?" She stood and dropped her combat pose, framing her chin with her thumb and forefinger, peering at him.

"Uh... Yeah," Aang answered, scratching his head. She forgave him, already? Or was she still just shocked? As he scratched his head, he realized something else. He didn't have any hair. After the failed invasion on the Day of the Black Sun, he decided to let his hair grow out again. But now... He was bald. Again.

"How'd you get in that fire stone?" Zuko asked, arms crossed. He seemed to hold back his anger, for the time being. Azula, on the other hand, looked more curious than anything.

"What?" Aang asked, looking around him. He laid his eyes on the red stone, now devoid of glowing energy. This all seemed familiar... What was going on? Could it be...? He jumped up with the aid of air, landing on the inside of the stone. Yes, it was the same. Appa curled up in the hollow stone, a mournful groan to signal his waking. But how? How did he and Appa end up like this? Last time he remembered, he was with Avatar Yangchen and all of his other lives, including one he didn't recognize, far more ancient and primordial than any other. Yangchen had wanted him to abandon his regular mission for the time being, and make new friends? She said he needed to see the world from all perspectives. Was this what she meant? Was he on some kind of crazy spirit quest? His chest burned with all the things he didn't know - unless that was simply the volcanic gases seeping into his lungs.

"Appa, wake up buddy," the Avatar said to his bison. He climbed onto his head and pulled open his eyelid, but he didn't move. He went over to tug on his mouth as Zuko and Azula walked around to see what he was doing. Zuko gaped just as Appa woke up and licked Aang.

"What on earth is that?" Zuko asked, holding his sword in front of him, in case Appa attacked him too.

"Appa, my flying bison," Aang answered, with a ghost of a smile on his face. Appa began to inhale, unleashing a mighty sneeze that Aang ducked beneath in time. A mess of green goo launched toward a gaseous vent and plugged it just in time for a burst of steam to shoot and make it bubble and burst.

Azula grimaced. "Ugh, that's disgusting."

"That thing can't fly," Zuko stated, his voice solid and certain. "That's impossible."

"You guys are from around here, right?" Aang asked.

Zuko pointed his swords at Aang again and glanced sidelong at his sister. "Don't answer that! He probably signaled the Water Navy! He's a spy." His accusatory tone cut through to Aang in a way that the swords couldn't.

Aang's eyes widened. "Did you just say... The Water Navy?" His voice and his legs felt weak and nearly buckled.

"Duh, who else?" He thought that was Azula, but suddenly he felt lightheaded and dizzy.

"What's wrong with him?" Zuko asked.

"I don't know, but there's definitely something weird about him."

"First he attacks us, and now he's having a seizure or something. You know, I don't really care," Zuko said, folding his arms. Aang fell to his knees, clutching his head. What was going on? Did his previous lives just dump him into some twisted, separate dimension? Am I just dreaming?

"Tell me everything you know, please," he said to them, looking up at the two. He chose to just accept the possibility that he was dreaming.

"Why should we?" Azula scoffed. "First you attack us, then you go crazy, and now you just expect us to do what you want?"

"So it's the Water Tribe, as in, waterbenders, that's controlling the world?" he asked, voice unsure, ignoring her protests.

"Of course, everyone knows that," Zuko said, speaking slowly.

"Ugh... I think I feel sick," he mumbled. "Please, tell me everything about the war."

"It's been going on for a hundred years," Azula informed him. "One hundred years ago, the Water Tribes invaded all the other Nations, and they were winning. The Earth Kingdom and the Fire Nation fought back, but they wiped out all of the Air Nomads," she said, adding the end almost like a weak afterthought with a look of sympathy that he thought didn't suit her at all.

"I thought that might happen," he said with a sigh. "Keep going."

The two looked at him oddly as he casually dismissed the destruction of his people, but Zuko continued. "Our father and most of the adults in our village went off to fight."

"I'm the last firebender in the whole southern archipelago," Azula said with a sigh. "My father looked all around for a master, but I haven't been able to find any. Anyway, I'm Azula, and this is my dum-dum brother, Zuko."

"Shut up, Azula."

"I don't think you're a Water Navy spy," she said, inspecting him from all sides and ignoring her brother. "By the way, it's considered polite to tell us your name after we've introduced ourselves."

"Oh... My name's Aang," he said, offering a weak smile. Just go along with it... I'm just dreaming...

"Doesn't matter," Zuko said, turning around back to the path. "I'm leaving. I need to protect the village. I don't believe him."

"Excuse my idiotic brother," Azula said to Aang. "Zuzu, he's an airbender. The only one in a hundred years! He's kind of interesting. That's the only reason why I haven't immolated him yet with my firebending for almost knocking me off the mountain."

"You wouldn't be able to do that anyway!" Zuko turned around, his outburst sudden, but he snickered at her. "You lost, Azula."

"Well, he surprised me," Azula protested, crossing her arms. As the two siblings bickered, Aang thought to himself.

How am I going to wake up? He tried pinching himself, but it hurt. "Oh, uh, Zuko... And Azula," he said. This will take some getting used to. "Appa can give us a ride."

"I'm not riding on that thing, we're walking," Zuko said. Aang remembered another incident, way back when he first came out of the iceberg in the South Pole, but before Zuko could walk much further he stopped in front of the blazing hot lava that spilled over the path down the mountain. Aang stepped in front of him and swiped his staff over it with cool air, making the redness die down into an uneven path of black rock.

"Oh, he might need some rest anyway," Aang said, remembering. "Let's go, Appa." The bison groaned tiredly, walking slowly around the stone to join them on the cooled path. He didn't seem distrustful of Azula or Zuko. And then Aang wondered. Was this Appa the same one that went through all of his adventures with him, back in the "normal"... place? Did he have the same memories and experiences as Aang, or was he in that stone for one hundred years? Appa couldn't really talk to him and confirm it or anything. He folded his arms and thought for a moment. He looked at Azula again, her black hair not as sleek as it normally was, her face somewhat more tanned from a life in the sun, her nails not as sharp, and her eyes not as cruel.

"Why are you staring at me?" she asked, turning to look at him.

"Oh... nothing," he replied. Then he remembered. The "real" Appa had a scar on his back right leg, a long gash cut into him by Mai. Aang sifted through the white fur, looking for the scar. Nope... Nothing, he thought. He was alone in this "dream." If anything, that proved that none of this was real. It couldn't be. He slapped himself.

"What are you doing now?" Azula asked, narrowing her eyes at him.

"Told you he's crazy," Zuko whispered to her.

"There were, uh... Lava glowbugs on my face," Aang quickly lied. Azula and Zuko raised an eyebrow.


Sokka remained on the deck of the ship, not taking his eye off of the approaching shore. He didn't want to admit that their progress was slower than he had intended - his grandmother had been correct about the treacherous currents. He knew underwater volcanoes could have an effect on the sea, and that geothermal vents far below could sink ships no matter their size, so he had the waterbenders fight against that specifically as they sailed. But he didn't count on floating pumice stones barring their path, coating the sea in a film that looked matte brown from a distance.

They had to push those out of their way as they sailed, but it was no different from the icebergs at home. They could do this.

"Prince Sokka, I'm going to bed," his grandmother said from behind him with a yawn. "An old lady needs her rest. So do you. Off to bed!"

"You can't tell me what to do!" Sokka barked without turning to the old woman. "Haven't you learned yet, or are you going to continue being stubborn? The Avatar is close. I know it."

She sighed. "Even if you're right, and the Avatar is alive, your father and ancestors have all tried and failed."

"I know that," Sokka said, tracing his hand over the scar of his empty eye socket. "But I'll succeed where they failed. I have to. I can't give up and I can't seem weak. The Avatar's hundred years in hiding are over."


The sky blazed a brilliant orange as the sun set beneath the Twins, making way for a clear, starry expanse. Zuko walked ahead with determination, but Aang felt weary and wanted some time alone. Azula trailed slightly behind Zuko, her steps a little more sluggish than his.

"Hey, I was wondering..." she began, slowing to a pace to match Aang's. "Do you know what happened to the Avatar? He was supposed to be born into the Air Nomads."

"What? Oh, I don't know," Aang said with a halfhearted shrug. His clothes clung to him in sweat. The air itself seemed heavy with moisture that he tried to fight off by keeping the space around him circulated. He listened to the chorus of evening insects and tropical birds all around them as he swatted away gnats swarming in clouds every few feet, but with every puff of air more seemed to replace them. A hog-monkey yowled somewhere in the distance and another answered its call.

"Alright, if you say so," Azula said, nodding. She let out a long, cat-like yawn. "I'm tired."

"You can go and, uh... Rest on Appa, if you like," he offered, not believing his own words. This was Azula! But... She was different. He tried not to groan.

After a few more hours of navigating through the rainforest, where Zuko didn't complain once, they found the village. It was well into the night, and it seemed deserted, but there were a few torches lit. Most of the structures were wooden, surrounded by a small wall of sticks and brambles.

"You can sleep in this one," Azula said, gesturing to one of the few structures not made of wood, near the entrance. It was little more than a simple lean-to, but Aang had slept in worse. The firebender jumped off of Appa and led him to it. "It's not much, but you'll be fine. Night."

"Night," he mumbled, collapsing onto a heap of blankets. Sleep mercifully came to him and he hoped he would wake up back with his friends.


He fought in a mass of people, blood and dead bodies all around him. Everything burned. Lightning cracked through the sky as the enemy firebenders drove the rebels back. A fireball soared through the heavens, heading towards the Earth, bestowing the firebenders with unstoppable power.

Aang fought using the full rage of the Avatar as his allies fell around him, one among them being Jeong Jeong, who had ten firebenders all around him as each of them fought with as much strength and power as Aang. The firebending master, as skilled as he was, fell to the inferno.


"NO!" Aang shouted, waking up.

"Aang, what's going on?" Azula asked, storming into the small tent. She stumbled over him, not expecting him to be sitting up.

"I'm sorry," Aang said to her, hugging his knees. "It was just a bad dream."

"Oh, well, come on then. Everyone wants to see you." She pulled him up and outside, and the sudden, sweltering heat made him sweat all over again. "Aang, this is our entire village. Everyone, this is Aang."

He looked over the cluster of people - mostly children and elderly - and the village beyond them. Many of the homes, now that he could see them clearly in the sunlight, seemed much more solid than the structures in the Southern Water Tribe ever did. Some had multiple floors, with tiered outsides in the Fire Nation style and trimmed in yellow paint. A village shrine rested in the center, upon which painted scrolls of ancient figures hung with incense sticks below them as a tribute to their ancestors. Just beyond the northern wall, he saw the ruins of a stone temple claimed by the trees around it, its shadowy entrance yawning with a frame of coiling roots. Beneath the tree bark, he could just barely see a splash of color - all the colors of a rainbow, in fact, though it had long faded with age. He hadn't seen temples like that in the Fire Nation since before he had been frozen in the iceberg.

"Nice to meet you," Aang said, grinning sheepishly. He hadn't been put on the spot like this in so long. His eyes fell on one particular man with a potbelly and a topknot wearing an easygoing smile. Iroh! He looked the same as ever, so achingly familiar that he felt a painful sensation in his stomach.

Azula continued. "He's an airbender." Now they looked interested.

"An airbender?" Iroh asked, stepping forward. "I have never met one. It is an honor."

"He's our kooky Uncle," Azula informed Aang.

Iroh gave him a wide grin. "Call me Uncle. Is that... a glider?" he asked, pointing to his staff.

"Of course," Aang smiled. He's alive... I can see him... Iroh had helped so much and had become so close to all of them. To think that Azula, the girl standing next to him, had ended his life... it was unfathomable. "Want to see it in action?"

"That would be most wonderful," Iroh said with an excited grin. He hadn't changed at all. Aang unfurled the glider's wings, soaring up into the air as a skeptical Zuko watched in awe. Most of the children cheered. When Aang landed again, many of them crowded around him while even Azula looked interested.

Zuko grumbled to himself.

Iroh approached Aang with joined hands and an eager glint in his eyes. "I'm sorry to interrupt, but Azula has errands to finish." The firebender rolled her eyes but walked off. "Now, Aang, would you like to talk over some tea? I would love to hear some of the stories of your people."

Aang grinned.


Sokka stood on the deck of the ship once again, but this time he didn't face the approaching shore. Three Water Navy soldiers stood in front of him while his Grandmother sat off to the side. The soldiers got into a stance.

"Again," she commanded. Water rose from the sea at Sokka's gestures, hitting the soldiers' own streams of water. One threw ice knives at him which Sokka blocked with a newly formed ice wall. Water lashed out at him, but he dodged between the whips and launched a direct attack at their legs in an attempt to break their roots. He landed on both of his feet, facing his three opponents.

"No, you're doing it wrong," the old woman said a little harshly. "Waterbending is passive, it flows all around us. It is a redirecting power, not a blocking defense. Water cannot be forced by us. As little energy as possible has to go into bending water for defense, so make use of its cutting ability. Watch," she explained, pulling up thin tendrils of water from the sea. One of the soldiers threw a flurry of icicles at her which she cut clean through without any signs of effort. "See? Try it that way."

Sokka threw his hands up in the air. "Still not good enough? I've been working at these forms for..." He counted on his fingers, calculating a time span, but grumbled and clenched his fist. "Forever!"

"No, you are too impatient. Keep doing what you were doing," she ordered. Sokka growled, pulled up a jet of water and sent it at a soldier. He tried redirecting the attack with more water, but was pushed back.

"The Avatar is over one hundred years old. He's an airbender. He's had plenty of time to master all four elements. I'll need more than basics to defeat him!" He averted his gaze, swallowed his pride, and wondered how his men would view him for forcing out his next words. "I... I'm gonna need your help when I face him, Gran."

His grandmother seemed to think this over, but answered him with a supportive smile. "Fine, but after I finish my biscuits. We'll face him together."


"Aang," Azula called to him after finishing her chores. She opened the tent flap, looking inside to see Aang and Iroh joyfully sipping at their tea. He was almost able to forget that he was dreaming, and that the war was still going on. Someone who had died had returned to him.

"Yeah?" he asked, stifling his laughter over a joke he and Iroh shared.

"Can I talk to you for a minute?"

"Um, sure," he said. He followed her out of the tent, but she walked out of the village toward the border of the jungle. "Where are we going?"

"On a walk," she replied. When he caught up with her, she turned to face him. "Can you teach me firebending?"

"Firebending? I don't think so," he replied, his voice sullen. The day before, as they walked through the night, he had tried lighting a fire in his palm... but it didn't work. It was as if he totally forgot how to bring fire to life in his hands. He tried everything—moving rocks, conjuring water—but he could only airbend. He didn't know what was going on, but something wasn't right. "There's nobody else to teach you?"

"No, like I said, I'm the only firebender here."

"What? Iroh and Zuko can't bend?"

"Of course not," she said, smirking in a haughty way. "The only firebenders live in the Golden City."

Aang almost froze in his tracks. That explained a lot of things. Before, he saw Zuko lighting a fire using flint and tinder, and Iroh boiled his tea with the same method. And there was something else now, too. "What's the Golden City?" he asked.

"How long were you in that volcano?" she asked.

"I'd say about a hundred years, since I don't know about this war with the Water Tribes," he said offhandedly. "But what's the Golden City?"

"You seem to be taking that well," she said, raising an eyebrow. "You're a very odd boy. Anyway, it's a city to the north. It's one of the only standing Fire Nation cities left."

"Well, I'm sure there're firebenders there. Why don't you go?"

"It may as well be on the other side of the world. I can't just simply walk there," she said, sighing in defeat. "I've never left this island."

He couldn't believe he was about to say this... but he needed to see if he could firebend again. It was the only way.

"I can bring you, on Appa," he choked out.

"What?"

"I can bring you on Appa," he said more clearly.

"What? It sounds great and all, but I don't know," she said, averting her eyes. Aang almost slapped himself again. This girl was definitely different from the Azula he knew. "His" Azula was so clear and precise, and never indecisive.

"Well, think about it," he said.

"Let's head back," said Azula. "It's time to eat soon."

As he followed after her, Aang thought this must be the weirdest dream he had ever had - and he had never forgotten the one where Appa and Momo engaged in a swordfighting duel.


Sokka looked through the telescope after his ship had managed to maneuver around the floating pumice stones and volcanic currents. They had been treated to the sight of a consistent lava flow churning into the ocean along the cliffs bordering the island, like thin red fingers grasping for water. He and the crew had covered their mouths with sealskin halfmasks to keep from inhaling the sulfuric air, but after they had sailed through the worst of it, they had rounded the southern half of the island where the air felt clearer.

Because of its proximity to another island, the water was shallower and choppy, so he dispatched the catamarans when he saw a village nestled in the verdant green valley between both volcanoes. "With all of its natural protections, it would make sense for the Avatar to hide here," he said to himself, trying to quell the feeling of triumph that tried to surge in his chest. He wasn't so arrogant to assume he had won yet. "Tell my grandmother. I think I'm about to find him."


Author's Note: Sorry that this seems a lot like the show at this point, but like I said, things will change as Aang begins to accept that he's not dreaming and he'll try to change things for the better. Please let me know what you think!

And no, Zuko can't firebend in this universe but Sokka can waterbend.