“Senlin?” Asked Katara with a quizzical look, clearly unsure as to why Lee would want to go to such a seemingly insignificant town- Aang felt the same.
“Yeah, it's supposed to have spiritual, uh, stuff going on. And the avatar is supposed to be the bridge between our world and the spirit world, right?” Said Lee, not meeting Katara’s gaze.
Aang was confused about their course of action after Lee’s suggestion, since they'd been travelling together for almost a month now and he had not betrayed them, but he also hadn't really proved he could be trustworthy other than not killing them in their sleep. The airbender already trusted him because of a deep, spiritual feeling he had, but he figured Katara and Sokka might still be apprehensive to go a bit out of their way just to go to a mysterious, apparently haunted, island. Yet, the boy was pleasantly surprised.
“Okay then, spirits, avatar- sounds legit. According to the map, it should be just a little to the west from here.” Sokka nodded at Lee, who seemed startled that Sokka was on board with his plan so easily.
“... Uh, yeah.” Lee agreed, actually looking… A little disappointed? Why would he be sad that they trusted him enough to travel to a scary island with him? “Are you sure? It's a bit out of our way and it's kind of a weak lead…”.
“We trust you, and if it's a bust we're not going to blame you; so far this entire trip has been one failure after another.” Comforted Katara with a kind smile, patting Lee's shoulder, before climbing up onto Appa’s head to steer.
About 2 hours later a small island came into view, not at all like Kyoshi, it was mostly wildlife and had a tiny section lit up. Aang assumed that that section was the village of Senlin, though it looked pretty ramshackle like it had been destroyed and rebuilt several times, and asked Katara to land a little outside of it since something felt… Off about the woods. Sure enough, when they landed, Aang stepped out and realised that a large chunk of what had been a forest was now in splinters, completely destroyed and charred down to nothing. No wonder the spirits were restless here; their home had been destroyed!
“No…” Aang basically whispered, standing on the clearing and surveying the atrocity that had befallen these woods. “Who would do this?!”.
“Fire Nation.” Sokka said, pointing at the burns littering the ground and the ash covering almost the entire clearing.
Aang felt terrible. The avatar would have stopped this, Arianna would have stopped this but he'd run off and left her to die- unknowingly but still. And now he couldn't even find the new avatar to guide, the person who was supposed to deal with this kind of stuff. Because now this forest was gone forever, and there was nothing he could do about it.
“Aang, look!” Katara gestured towards something on the ground that Aang had just assumed to be broken chunks of trees, but on closer inspection they were acorns. “They're everywhere, so one day this forest will grow back, okay?”.
“Okay.” the airbender sniffled, not even realising he'd been crying until the the tears reached his chin. He still didn't feel good about it but he was a little more hopeful.
Meanwhile Lee look extremely uncomfortable, guilty even. Aang assumed it was because his nation had been the one to destroy the forest, but there was some deeper issue that Aang couldn't diagnose. He never had gotten round to asking the firebender what had been up with him on Kyoshi, which he was now feeling guilty about. If something was bothering Lee Aang should be there to help him in any way he was able.
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Zuko and his three companions entered Senlin with as little ruckus as possible, not wanting to antagonise the villagers. Well, the firebender would have been more than happy to make them enemies if it meant they got to leave earlier, but he chose not to tell his group that since he had technically been the one to suggest they come here. Though he actually wasn't the one to suggest it originally, that had been Kyoshi, and the only reason he even brought it up with his group was because he was completely terrified of his past life and didn't want to enrage her. But, again, he didn't tell the others that since they'd either think he was crazy or figure out he was that avatar.
“Who goes there?!” Called a villager frightfully, he was holding a lit torch despite the sun only just setting. The man was of only around thirty but he looked closer to fifty with his greying hair and tired expression.
“Uh.. Hi! I'm Aang, an airbender, and-” Aang began as cheerily as he could manage before he got abruptly cut off.
“An airbender?! Really? Are you the avatar?” Asked the man hopefully, suddenly looking 10 years younger.
“Um, no, sorry.” Aang apologised, though he seemed reluctant to from how pleading the man's eyes had become.
“Oh… I just thought… You see, our village is being terrorised by an angry spirit: Hei Bai, ever since the Fire Nation destroyed the forest. Each night Hei Bai takes someone, seven have been captured so far and if you were the avatar perhaps you'd be able to help us before the Winter Solstice.” He explained, and Zuko pitied him but was not about to charge an angry spirit- avatar or not.
“Well… I can still help you! I'm very spiritually gifted, maybe I can reason with Hei Bai. But what happens on the Winter Solstice?” Aang offered, and Zuko was about ready to start smoking with how annoyingly open to danger Aang was- he had a feeling he'd be forced to do some avatar stuff to save him.
“The Winter Solstice is the night where the veil between the spirit world and our world becomes so blurred that it disappears. It's a couple of days away but if it happens and Hei Bai is still at large… Our little town won't stand a chance. Do you really think you can stop him?” The man explained, beginning to lead the four to the center of the village. Zuko, who was still dressed in his Fire Nation clothes since he figured he now had bigger problems than ‘ah, scary firebender!’, was raising a few eyebrows but most of the people seemed too preoccupied with thought of a bloodthirsty spirit kidnapping them to worry about one little firebender.
“Yes. I think I can.” Aang gulped slightly and Katara and Sokka shared a look that showed how clearly not okay with Aang’s decision to ‘reason’ with a spirit they were, but neither said anything.
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Zuko, Katara and Sokka were inside a small hut whilst Aang stood outside, waiting for Hei Bai to show up. It was now dark outside and the sun had set a few minutes ago, so tension was high.
“I'm not sure if he can do this.” Admitted Katara, staring at the airbender worriedly.
“He's just a kid.” Agreed Sokka, turning Zuko’s guilt for letting Aang do this alone from a 5 to a 9.
“Yeah, but he's smart, he's powerful. He can do this.” Zuko was trying to convince himself more that the others as he too watched Aang wait for the spirit.
Almost an hour later Zuko had begun to think that Hei Bai wouldn't show up at all, that there was no need to worry. But then a massive, six legged, spirit with completely black and white skin emerged from the remaining forest, straight towards Aang. It was huge- bigger than the houses around it, and its scream, it was awful. A sonic blast that tore apart buildings and left the village as rubble. Hei Bai was slowly making its way towards Aang who was yelling for it to calm down and was failing miserably. Then the spirit began grabbing at the young airbender who, to his credit, did manage to avoid his blows, until he was caught by surprise and trapped in one of Hei Bai’s hand/claw things.
“He can't do this.” Zuko admitted, pushing Sokka (who seemed about to do exactly what he was planning to but without avatar powers) out of the way and running straight at the spirit.
The Prince blasted some fire at Hei Bai but only annoyed it, causing him to swipe Zuko away before heading into the dark, definitely haunted, forest. Predictably, Zuko ran after it, despite the calls from Katara and Sokka to not do something so stupid. He followed it for as long as possible, what felt like hours, before collapsing from exhaustion at the bottom of a wooden bear statue.
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The next morning Sokka had been planning on going in after Aang and Lee, until Katara grabbed his ear painfully and yelled at him not to be such an idiot.
“I'm just as worried as you are! But getting ourselves captured isn't going to help anyone. Maybe Aang can still reason with Hei Bai?” She suggested, sat a short distance outside of the forest just in case Aang or Lee miraculously walked out.
“What if he can't, Katara?” They'll be trapped in the spirit world forever, and tonight someone else will get taken and tomorrow it'll be the solstice and we'll all get captured!” Sokka yelled at his sister, he too was just outside of the forest but he was standing as if about to charge into the confines of the trees and challenge thirty spirits.
But he stopped in his shouting when he noticed the tears leaking from Katara’s blue eyes, immediately feeling terrible and crouching down to put his arm around her.
“I don't know what to do, Sokka! They're gone and I can't do anything to help them.” She wept, causing her brother to well up a little too.
“It's okay, we'll… Figure something out…” Sokka silently prayed that Aang and Lee were okay.
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Zuko woke up feeling a little strange but otherwise healthy, in the middle of a forest. He remembered the events of the previous night and mentally hit himself for allowing himself to pass out. Usually he could go for ages without sleep, so what was up with him now? Deciding to figure that out later, he headed deeper into the forest to find Aang. Despite it being day, the trees made the forest shadowy and dark, forcing Zuko to firebend himself a torch- but it didn't work. He tried again, still no fire. The Prince looked down at his hands worriedly before turning back to the clearing he'd woken up in; planning to practice some katas to see if he managed to produce even the smallest flame, but he was met with a jarring sight. He could see his own body sat below the bear statue, in a sort of trance, which Zuko guessed could only mean one thing- he was in the spirit world.
He mentally cursed Kyoshi before realising no one could hear him and doing it out loud. Then he just had the few small issues of having no idea how to re enter his body, needing to save Aang and not being able to bend. At this point he could seriously do with a plan from Sokka, or a water whip from Katara or an optimistic outlook on his situation from the airbender he was currently having to save. Actually, he'd probably even settle for a book entitled ‘A Guide to the Spirit World’.
Fortunately for him, that book arrived in the form of a massive, blue, glowing dragon landing right in front of him and causing him to make an undignified squeak of fear. He, for some reason he still wasn't aware of even though he'd had all those flashbacks on Kyoshi, instinctively knew the dragon to belong to Avatar Roku. Having very few options, Zuko gave into what the dragon seemed to be signalling and climbed onto its back, allowing it to take off and being pretty shocked by how much faster than Appa it was.
The presence of a dragon also incited guilt and shame in him, the dragons now being extinct mainly due to his family: Sozin starting the trend of hunting them and his uncle killing the last one years before he was born. And yet here he was, riding one to an unknown location.
They travelled across the sea until they reached an island and the dragon flew straight into a temple (both it and Zuko easily phasing through the walls) until they were in a Fire Sage chamber. The dial on the wall spun until it landed on the solstice, and the light that had been travelling across the wall hit the statue of Roku in the middle of the room. Then his dragon nodded at Zuko and curled up next to his master’s statue’s feet.
“... Wait… You want me to go to a Fire Nation temple?! I can't do that! I've been banished, it's bad enough being a traitor because of something I can't control but to choose to betray my father?! I would never.” Zuko ranted angrily, pacing up and down the chamber. The dragon only growled and looked up at its master’s statue, nodding slightly, before crawling back over to Zuko.
The Prince took this as a sign to get back on its back and they flew back to Senlin, and back to Zuko’s body- still sat at the bottom of the bear statue.
He felt more comfortable in his own body but was still shook up from his spirit adventures, so when he noticed the setting sun all he really wanted to do was curl up and sleep. Yet he pushed forward and ran back to the edge of the forest, almost getting there before Hei Bai noticed him. The two were just on the edge of the forest, and Hei Bai was probably visible to the villagers but Zuko was still hidden behind some trees. The spirit looked ready to tear the Prince apart, which Zuko wasn't on board with, so he tried desperately to think of how Aang would solve this problem, figuring the young airbender was more equipped to spirit matters.
“Wait, you're mad that your forest was destroyed? Well, it's not gone forever. The kid you kidnapped, Aang, he was upset too… I was a bit sad as well, my people burnt it down and this stupid avatar empathy for plants and stuff has made me soft I think… But it's not gone forever, there are acorns everywhere so one day it will grow back, I promise. Okay?” Zuko prayed that he wouldn't get eaten, but his words actually seemed to calm the spirit, and Hei Bai transformed into a docile, though very large, panda who slowly plodded into the village.
This time Hei Bai didn't attack anybody, instead some bamboo shimmered into existence behind it and the captured villagers, as well as Aang, began to climb out. Wanting to seem like a victim, Zuko went up behind the bamboo and then climbed through it too, so it appeared as though he'd been trapped with the rest of them. Then Hei Bai walked off and Zuko got trapped in a surprising hug by Sokka.
“You didn't die!” He congratulated, grabbing onto Katara (who was hugging Aang) and pulling the both of them in so it became a group hug. Zuko carefully unpeeled Sokka’s arms from around him and offered the three a nervous smile. Aang, however, had a completely genuine smile and seemed about to burst with excitement.
“Guess what! Whilst I was in the spirit world I had this strange vision… But the important part is a dragon appeared and took me to this avatar temple, I think it was built in honour of Roku since he had a statue there. I think we're meant to visit it! On the solstice.” Aang explained, and Zuko tried not to imagine all of the awful ways he could kill his past lives for putting him through this.
“You got a real message? Incredible!” Praised Katara with a bright smile, bringing Aang in for another hug.
“There is one little thing though… The temple is in the Fire Nation…” Aang admitted quietly, and the Water Tribe siblings gasped whilst Zuko just sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.
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Iroh fidgeted with his Lotus Pai Cho piece as he walked around the Earth Kingdom market. He was still trying to find his nephew, and had so far had little progress, until he saw a poster on a tree.
It had clearly not been issued by the Earth Kingdom authorities, but it was there all the same. It had a picture of Zuko, a decent likeness and his unmistakable scar that burnt an angry welt of anger on Iroh’s mind, though the description didn't really fit: Part of a band of robbers, originating from the Earth Kingdom and a non-bender. Skilled with swords and travelling with three others.
On the tree there were three other posters surrounding Zuko’s, two were apparently Water Tribe and one was a child wearing a hat, a suspected airbender. Iroh wasn't sure what to think, but he tore the posters down and lit them aflame, now knowing he was at least on the right track.
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A/N:
Hi! I've uploaded two chapters since I forgot to post to Wattpad for a couple of weeks (sorry) :/
Btw, I really appreciate comments and votes (or likes or whatever you call them) so I'd love if you guys left your feedback- even if it's only a smiley face in the comments or a vote on one of my chapters :))