Sokka, Katasi, and Aang continued their journey home as Appa padded slowly through the waves. It was growing dark.

Katasi crawled towards the young airbender. "Hey, Aang?" She turned around with a smile.

"Yeah? What's on your mind?"

"With you being an airbender and all...I guess I was wondering if you knew what happened to the Avatar?" he inquired hopefully.

Aang's eyes widened and she turned her head away abruptly, her hair whipping behind her from the sudden movement. The question had taken her by surprise, and thought of his reaction if he knew the truth worried her. "N-No! Nope! Sorry! Didn't know him! I mean, I knew people who knew him, but I didn't, okay!" The entire time, her gaze darted everywhere but him. Alright, so maybe she needed to work on being a better liar, but cut her some slack. The Air Nomads were extremely honest people.

"Okay, okay, just curious," he muttered, looking down in disappointment. "Good night."

"Sleep tight," sighed Aang as she crossed her legs and stared down at her feet, guilt filling her very being. From lying or running away in the first place, she didn't know, but somehow she knew it was both at the same time.

💨

Lightning flashed all around as Aang awoke with a jolt. Rain soaked her clothes, hair, and skin. Frightened, she grabbed the reins tried her best to steer Appa out of the storm, but Appa was already falling. They were falling!

They crashed into the waves, and Aang resurfaced quick for air, but it wasn't long before another wave pulled them under. This time, they didn't come back up. As she drifted into unconsciousness, her grip loosened on the reins, both of them sinking deeper and deeper....

Without warning, something awakened inside her. Her eyes shot open, a bright blue light emitting from them. Of their own accord, her fists slammed together, and ice sprung from them, forming a frozen sphere around her drowning, shivering body, and spread to also save her beloved pet bison.

A voice breached her memory, bringing her back to the world of the present. "Aang...Aang..."

"AANG! Wake up!"

💨

Aang jolted awake again with a sharp gasp and found herself covered by a fur blanket, sitting in a teepee. Right, the Southern Water Tribe, she recalled. I forgot....

"Good, you're awake," said a male voice. She looked over to see Katasi sitting beside her and watching her with concern. "It's okay, you're in the village now." The waterbender had been scared when he heard Aang crying out and whimpering in her sleep, but relaxed when he found it was only the poor girl having a nightmare. "Everyone wants to see you now that you're feeling better. Why don't you get ready?" His cheeks flushed slightly. "I'll, um, give you your privacy." He stood and opened the flap of the teepee to leave.

"Th-thanks." Once he was gone, Aang pulled her shirt back over her head, as she had fallen asleep wearing only her pants and underwrappings.

Finished putting her shirt on, she went outside and grabbed her staff. "Uh, I'm d-dressed now." Nodding, Katasi grabbed her wrist and led her into the village square.

"Aang, this is the entire village. Entire village, this is Aang!" Katasi introduced cheerfully. There weren't exactly that many, a small crowd at most, but they were all that were left after Katasi and Sokka's mother left with all the men on their journey.

Aang put her fists together and bowed in respect as was tradition, but all the villagers  shied away from her, watching her closely in silent shock. "What's wrong? Did Appa sneeze on me?" she asked, confused.

An old woman with snow white hair walked forward, shaking her head. "It's just that...nobody has seen an airbender for a hundred years," she explained. "We thought they were all extinct until my grandson and granddaughter found you, young lady."

"Ex...tinct?" repeated Aang in a quiet voice, eyes wide with fear and shock. What did the woman mean by that? Did the monks and nuns hide themselves away from the world for some reason? That had to be it, because they just couldn't all be gone. Did they hide in shame because she ran away?

Sensing her distress, Katasi placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Aang, this is my grandmother," he said.

"Call me Gran-Gran," remarked the old woman.

Sokka then strode over and was poking at the staff Aang carried with her. "Is this some sort of weapon? Like, is it tipped with metal so you can slice people's heads off with it. Or is it just an accessory?"

"Neither," replied Aang with a slight smile. "It's for airbending." The staff unfolded to reveal a glider within it.

"Magic trick!" cried a village child. "Do it again!"

"Not magic, airbending," she clarified. "I use this to direct air currents, so I can fly around and stuff!"

"Last time I checked," Sokka snorted. "humans couldn't fly."

"Check again," Aang grinned, and moved into position, pushing herself up off the ground and into the air.

Everyone watched her fly about them, agape and fascinated, especially Katasi. That is until Aang, not paying much attention to her surroundings, crashed headlong into a wall of snow.

"Awwww, my watchtower!" whined Sokka. And now this girl destroyed her precious watchtower? It had taken her forever to build it! How was she going to look out for danger now?

"That was amazing," complimented Katasi, ignoring his older sister.

"Great," Sokka grumbled, rolling her eyes. "You're an airbender, Katasi's a waterbender, together you can waste time all day long!" She stormed off to gather more snow and attempt to salvage the remains of her watchtower.

"Enough playing, young man!" Gran-Gran scolded Katasi. "You've got chores to do."

Leaving Aang and following his grandmother, Katasi couldn't help revealing his thoughts. "She's the real deal, Gran-Gran, I'm telling you!" he whispered excitedly. "I've found a bending teacher!"

"Try not to pin all your hopes on this girl," advised Gran-Gran.

"But...she's a real classy lady, you know? Besides, I can tell she's probably full of wisdom."

Gran-Gran was silent, watching Aang out of the corner of her eye tricking to unfreeze her tongue from her staff much to the gathering crowd of children's delight.

🔥

Back on the Fire Nation ship, Zuleika threw scorching orange flames at two guards her uncle had recruited to help her train. "Again," Iroh commanded.

Zuleika opened the fight by spreading her arms in the direction of the two firebending guards, showering them with flames. Blocking the assault with ease, her opponents attacked. The princess shifted her weight to duck beneath a retaliation blast of the firebender to her left while the one to the right jumped forward to aim a blast at her feet. Zuleika propelled herself out of the way and twisted around midair, directing another blast to the soldier who retaliated first with her fist, and another with her foot to the man who'd aimed at her feet. She landed and stretched out his fists towards her opponents, ready to face another attack.

Iroh sighed and stood up. "No! Power in firebending comes from the breath, not from those tomboyish-looking muscles you've insisted on getting. The breath becomes energy in the body. The energy extends past your limbs and becomes fire!" Iroh demonstrated, releasing a controlled plume of flames that burst in Zuleika's direction, but evaporated into the air before it could burn her. "Get it right this time."

"I've done this a thousand times," Zuleika complained. "Give me the next drill! I'm more than ready!"

"No, you're impatient. You have yet to master your basics. Drill it again!" He then sat back down as his niece growled in frustration.

In a fit of anger, Zuleika turned and aimed a powerful fire kick toward one of the soldiers. The firebender attempted to block the attack and was thrown back, unable to stop the power behind his element. "The sages tell us that the Avatar is the last airbender. He must be over a hundred years old by now. He's had a century to master the four elements. I'll need more than basic firebending to defeat him. You WILL teach me the advanced advanced set!" she shouted.

"Very well. But first...I must...finish my roast duck," Iroh relented, albeit reluctantly, plopping back down. Zuleika wore a look of disgust as she watched her uncle eat his meal."

🔥

"Alright, people!" began Sokka. "When facing a firebender, we must show no fear! We have to show that we can't be pushed around, especially us ladies! We will fight, and we will win! We will show them we will not be taken lightly, right?!"

Her audience, not really grown-ups but children of the village, the oldest only 8, stared at her blankly. There was already the whispers at having a girl attempt to teach their sons and daughters how to fight, but she blocked it out now because how else would they learn? Katasi certainly wasn't about to teach them. He'd barely paid any attention to the lessons their dad tried to give him concerning combat before he had been killed, and their mom hardly had any time to teach him anything before she left.

"I have to go potty!" one of them declared, raising his hand.

"All the men in the tribe have left us to go fight in the war!" Sokka lectured. "So we are the only ones left to protect the homefront! Which means no time for potty breaks!"

"But I really have to go!"

"Fine," Sokka sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Who else has to go potty?"

Every single one of the children raised their hands.

Sokka facepalmed.

"Sokka!" called Katasi. "Have you seen Aang?"

Almost as if on cue, Aang appeared out from behind a snowy wall, shouting, "Katasi! Come see the snow Appa I made!"

Gritting her teeth, Sokka demanded, "Get her out of here, Katasi! This lesson is for warriors only!" A second later, she turned to discover her "warriors" were using Appa's tail as a slide. "Are you kidding me?!" she shrieked. "We don't have time for fun and games with a war going on!"

Aang froze and looked at her. "War?" She blinked. "What war?" There was no war going on. All the nations were peacefully living in harmony. There hadn't been a war in centuries!

"You're kidding, right?"

Why were they all staring at her as if she'd lost her mind? Looking serious for a second, Aang opened her mouth to respond, but then a penguin waddled up behind Sokka. "Penguin!" she cried instead, chasing after it.

Sokka blinked twice, and then looked at Katasi. "She's kidding, right?" He simply shrugged, just as puzzled as she was.
  
"Come back, Mr. Penguin! Sled with me!" Katasi found Aang at the edge of the ice, where all the penguins had gathered to discuss what to do about the new menace that had entered their domain. Katasi couldn't help smiling at her childish exuberance.

Aang tried to catch one of the many penguins, but slipped and fell. She shook the snow out of her face and laughed. "As you can see, I have a way with animals," she grinned, and as if to prove it, she started to waddle like a penguin. "Honk! Hooonk!"

With a laugh, Katasi thought a moment. "Tell you what," he negotiated, "I'll teach you how to catch a penguin if you teach me waterbending."

FLashing him an apologetic smile, Aang stood back on her feet. "Sorry, but I'm an airbender, not a waterbender. Isn't there someone in your tribe who could teach you?"

"No," Katasi replied sadly. "You're looking at the only waterbender in the South Pole." All the waterbenders were taken by the Fire Nation years ago, not to mention what happened to his father....

"That's terrible!" She frowned. "Waterbenders need teachers to master water!" An idea struck her. "What about the North Pole? They've got tons of waterbenders there, right? Maybe one of them could teach you."

"But," he explained, "we haven't had contact with our sister tribe in years. And it's not like they're just around the glacier, they're on the other side of the globe."

"But you forget," she reminded him, "I have a flying bison. Appa and I can personally take you there. We'll get you a master, Katasi!"

"I-I don't know, I've never left home before," he stammered out, having doubts about the plan.

"Well, think about it," she suggested simply. "But in the meantime, can you teach me how to catch a penguin?"

"Observe closely, young novice," Katasi intoned in a wise voice. "Penguin catching is an ancient and sacred art. Behold!" He brandished a fish and threw at Aang. The airbender caught the fish, and as if by magic, the penguins swarmed her.

Soon enough, they had caught penguins of their own and were racing them down the snowy hills, both cheering loudly as they sledded. Aang rode onto an uphill slope, flying over Katasi before landing in front of the boy.

"I haven't done this since I was a boy!" he laughed heartily.

"You still are a boy!" she laughed back. They slid through an icy tunnel and onto the snowy shore before disembarking and letting their penguins waddle away. Aang looked up, and the cheerful air evaporated as they paused in awe at the scene before them.

"What's that?" asked Aang, pointing to the creepy, rusted ruin. She hadn't seen anything, but it looked like something Kuzon had told her about when she'd visited him in the Fire Nation.

"A Fire Navy ship," said Katasi, anger clear in his tone as he remembered the story behind it. "And a very bad memory for my people."

Aang approached the downed vessel, mesmerized.

"Aang, don't! We're not allowed to go near it," he warned, reaching out for her. "It could be booby-trapped."

"I'm not scared," she replied, turning around to face him as she trekked forward. "If you want to be a bender, you have to let go of fear."

Knowing he'd regret it, Katasi followed her into the wreck. They kept close and soon ended up in a room full of varius weapons. Aang took note of all the ones she'd watched Kuzon use and that he'd even attempted to teach her to use, much to the girl's distress and protests. But according to him, no matter how peaceful their nation was, the airbenders would eventually need to fight againt those that weren't. And her bending wouldn't always be around to save her in those situations.

"This place has haunted my tribe since Gran-Gran was a little girl. It was part of the Fire Nation's first attacks." He shuddered as he said it, the words bringing a chill with them that had nothing to do with the cold.

"Whoa!" Aang took a step back and held up her hands, her usual cheerful face holding disbelief as the fact of what he said refused to register in her brain. "Back up! I have friends all over the world, including the Fire Nation! And I've never heard of any war!"

Katasi furrowed his brows. "Aang, how long were you in that iceberg?"

"I-I don't kn-know!" Aang sniffled, trying to hold back tears. "A few days maybe?"

"Aang.... I think may have been more like a hundred years."

"What?" Her legs gave way and she fell to her knees, tears now running down her cheeks as her mind went numb. It was all just too much to take in. "T-there's no way!" she exclaimed. "Do I l-look like a 112-year-old lady to you?"

"Think about it, Aang. The war is a hundred years old. And you didn't know about it, so you must have been in that iceberg the entire time."

"A—a hundred years," she mumbled, her expression filled with despair as she wiped her tears on her sleeves. "I can't believe it." Who knew how many of her friends had passed. Gyatso was certainly one of them, having been a rather old man already when she ran away. If she were lucky, maybe at least one of her old friends had been blessed enough by the spirits to have survived over a hundred years. She'd just have to search for them once she checked back home. The descendants of her old airbending friends would probably know about her, and she'll have to explain why exactly she left. They'd understand and welcome her back with open arms. And this time, she wouldn't be a coward, nor take her family for granted again.

"I'm sorry, Aang," said Katasi, saddened for his new friend's predicament, and he knelt to place a hand on her shoulder. "Maybe, somehow, there's a bright side to all this."

Aang remained quiet for a moment before managing a weak smile up at the waterbender. "Well, I did get to meet you and Sokka."

He returned her smile and helped her up. "Let's get out of here. This place is creepy," Katasi suggested, a feeling of dread building up in the pit of his stomach. She nodded in agreement and they started together towards the exit when Aang's foot tripped over a wire.

The doors slammed shut. "What was that you said about booby-traps?" asked Aang in a trembling voice, realizing she probably should have listened in the first place. Pipes started rattling as smoke poured from them and alarms went off. A flare then shot into the sky, making Katasi gasp in fear.

As the flare exploded in the sky, Aang spotted a hole that had been ripped into the ceiling by that century-ago battle, gaining an escape plan. "Time to go, hold on!" she warned, taking Katasi's hand and jumping out the hole into safety.

Shouldn't this be the other way around, he wondered as they scaled down the snowy cliffs, hand-in-hand.

🔥

With her telescope, Princess Zuleika followed the flare, and spotted two figures jumping out of the ship, holding one another. "The last airbender," she muttered. "Quite agile for his old age." She summoned a guard. "Fetch my uncle!" she ordered. "Tell him I've found the Avatar!" She returned her gaze into the telescope and turned it in the direction the two were running, her determination growing. She zeroed in on their destination, a small village. "And his hiding place."