(no subject)
Title: Aang's Journey
Summary: AU set five years after the canon start of the show. Aang wakes up alone and must find his destiny with the help of an unlikely traveling companion.
Rating: T, for language and violence
A/N: This chapter is short and sweet. Dont worry, they get longer from here...
Appa flew in a northeasterly direction, Aang sitting behind his head, the reins held in a death grip. He hadn’t actually told Appa where to fly, he’d simply given him the command to take off and kind of zoned out after that. His mind was too occupied with thoughts of revenge for him to concentrate on a destination; instead he just let Appa fly.
After long hours, Aang peered through the low clouds they soared above and sighted Kyoshi Island beneath them. He frowned, as he’d been entertaining thoughts of flying straight to the Fire Nation and leveling it island by island. That was quite impossible now, as it would require continuous flight over hundreds of miles of open water. Aang sighed and allowed Appa to continue, if he remembered correctly, their heading would take them within a few miles of Gaoling; he could stop and see what he could get in the way of supplies there. He certainly wasn’t planning on going hungry before the Fire Nation paid for what they’d done.
They landed an hour or so later in a small wood, still a good two hours from their destination. Aang decided to scout the area while Appa took a much needed nap; they’d woken from their slumber less than two days before, and already Appa had flown from the South Pole to the southern Earth Kingdom. It was quite a trip, and he was exhausted.
Aang skimmed just ten feet or so off the ground, feeling the rush of flying with his glider. It helped to take a little of the edge off his anger. He pulled up to clear a hill-and stopped, pulling up short to land awkwardly on the crest of the ridge.
Sitting in the depression before him was a large collection of tents, some large, some little, surrounded by a circle of wagons. The tents were all made of red and magenta fabric, and the largest tent was situated in the center. Aang could see people milling around the complex, carrying various things.
It was a circus.
A Fire Nation circus.
Aang felt his anger flare up again. How could those monsters even think about having fun when they had slaughtered an entire culture? His eyes scanned the scene, and he caught sight of a platypus bear being lead on a leash into one of the larger tents. If he listened carefully, he was pretty sure he could ear animal noises coming from that tent.
Of course. Circuses had animal acts, and they had to keep them somewhere. Aang rankled at the thought of the animals being mistreated by their handlers. He came to a decision, right then and there. He’d wait until dark, and then he’d sneak into the tent and free all the animals.
Then he’d teach these people a lesson.
--
Aang was back that night, using his airbending skills to sneak silently down the hill towards the circus. It must have been an off night, as the big tent was dark and most of the workers were gathered in a large wagon on the other side of the complex. That suited Aang just fine. He’d be left alone while he completed his mission.
The tent where the animals were kept was stiflingly hot, and the stench of so many beasts was almost enough to knock Aang down where he stood. And he’d thought Appa smelled bad when he didn’t get a bath.
Aang quickly pulled the collar of his robe up over his face and set to work. The animals were held in cages arranged around the perimeter of the tent, each one decidedly too small for the creature it held. The platypus bear from that morning, for instance, was held in a cage it could barely turn around in.
Aang ran around the tent, using his airbending to cut the locks on the cages and set the animals free. One by one, he ushered them out of the tent and into the night, whispering to them to get as far away as possible.
It took a while, but Aang finally managed to free every animal and get them away to safety. He was just congratulating himself on a job well done when he heard a voice from behind him.
“Hey! What the hell do you think you’re doing?!”
--
Ty Lee was sitting in her tent, debating going to hang out with the other performers. That one juggler they’d picked up was pretty cute…could merit some investigation. On the other hand, she was extremely tired. Maybe juggler boy could wait…
“Hey! What the hell do you think you’re doing?!”
Ty Lee sighed. Did the workers really have to swear so much? It got on her nerves. There were far more intelligent, not to mention mentally healthy, ways of expressing your emotions.
From outside came the sounds of a scuffle, and Ty Lee heard the person who’d yelled cry out in pain. What was going on? She got up and moved to the entrance to her tent, peeking out.
“Hello? Who’s there?” she called quietly. She saw no one. Wait, no there was someone; out beyond the wagons…was that a boy? She squinted in the dim light. It sure looked like a boy, and a young one too, maybe twelve or thirteen. And his aura…Ty Lee started. It was a brilliant, bloody orange, red around the edges, like a flame. She didn’t think she’d ever seen anyone so angry.
The boy was suddenly outlined in a bluish white light. His eyes began to glow, along with arrow shaped designs on his head and hands that Ty Lee couldn’t see before. His aura took on blues and greens and reds, in addition to the orange.
The wind began to pick up, and the boy rose off the ground, surrounded by a sphere of whirling air. Ty Lee shivered and ducked inside her tent. Things were about to get very, very bad.
--
Several horrendous minutes later, Ty Lee crawled out from under the ruined remains of her tent. She shoulder hurt where she had landed heavily on it; she immediately began messaging the area to increase the flow of chi and speed healing. She looked around; somehow her tent had been thrown several yards from where it had been, as she was now out beyond the wagons.
As she looked back towards the rest of the tents, she was treated to a terrible sight: The boy, still wrapped in air and glowing, using tremendous blasts of air to utterly destroy the circus. Wagons were sent flying like toys, tents were blown away, and the vortex the boy was creating made it hard to stand. Gradually, the wind calmed, and the boy stopped glowing, sinking back to the ground.
Ty Lee stood stunned. Before her lay the shattered remnants of her whole life, strewn about the hills like confetti. What was she going to do now?
Movement caught her eye, and Ty Lee saw a figure wriggle out from under a nearby pile of wreckage. It was one of the other performers, one of the clowns. He looked like he was in bad shape, grunting in pain and dragging his right leg. Ty Lee saw instantly that it was broken.
The boy saw the man, too, and moved like a flash to stand before him. The man began gibbering in fear.
“Please, have mercy, you don’t understand, I have a family-“ The boy silenced him with a kick to his wounded leg.
“Did you show mercy to the Air Nomads?! Did you think about their families?! No, you didn’t! None of you did!” He shouted over the man’s cries of pain. Ty Lee crouched, shivering, praying to the spirits that nothing bad would happen.
The boy’s eyes grew hard. “You don’t deserve to live.” He moved his hands in a violent slicing motion, cutting off the man’s final pleas. The man collapsed with a gurgle.
Ty Lee gasped without thinking; it was horrible. She realized her mistake when the boy’s eyes flashed to her, and he began sprinting towards her. Ty Lee stood, limbs shaking in fear, but ready to defend herself. The boy came closer...closer…she would have to time this just right…
Just as his arm rose to deliver a blow, Ty Lee lashed out, striking at several key points to immobilize him. Suddenly paralyzed, the boy tripped and slammed into her, bouncing them both over the ground with the force of his inertia. Ty Lee was thrown free, and pushed herself up to see the boy lying on his side about ten feet away. She got up slowly and walked towards him.
He was shaking uncontrollably.
--
Aang felt pain wracking every inch of his body. Well, every inch he could feel, anyway. That girl had done something to him; he couldn’t move his arms and legs. He could feel the Avatar State trying to activate, but whatever that girl had done, it prevented it; Aang’s vision kept going from normal to Avatar and back again. And it hurt. It really hurt.
Aang screamed as his vision glowed again briefly, accompanied by a mind-numbing wave of pain. His chest heaved, and his breath came short and shallow. He couldn’t breathe; he was going to suffocate…
Aang’s thoughts whirled. He saw a myriad of things: scenes from his past lives, Gyatso, playing airball at the Temple, showing other acolytes the air scooter he’d invented, Gyatso, the sky roiling with dark storm clouds as he rode Appa away from the Temple, Gyatso, Gyatso, Gyatso…
Aang screamed again, but this time it was in anguish. He felt tears streaming from his face, and now his breath caught because he was sobbing. They were all gone. Every airbender, everyone he had ever called friend, everyone he had ever looked up to, his master, the man that had been like a father to him…all gone.
He began screaming everything, all his anger, fear, and grief from the past two days bursting out of him like a pent up geyser. He was unaware of the girl that had paralyzed him sitting by his side, listening as he raged at the sky. He realized at one point that someone was holding him, gently running their hand over his scalp in a calming fashion as he sobbed.
It was only as his sobs became ragged breaths that Aang realized he could move his limbs again.
He fell into a deep, exhausted sleep.