========= Part 44 - First Encounter ==========
The two paths of development, which were extremely difficult to consider, raised a slight whirlwind of questions and doubts in my head. In essence, I had the opportunity to give up further self-discovery, stop at only four elemental chakras, start lying and use the enormous advantages that this would give me. And why is all my development focused on the chakras anyway? It takes a long time, they complicate life greatly, but a contract with a dark spirit would simply give me the power of the Avatar. Of course, there was the problem of obtaining it. It was unlikely that I would be able to get it out of the spirit world and break the cage; that could only be done in the era of the next Avatar. But he wasn't the only powerful spirit. Take, for example, Princess Severa, the girl who became the new spirit of the Moon in the canon. As a child, she was dying, and it was the spirit that nourished her with strength. So it turns out they can personally bestow blessings and power? And this happens all the time. I've thought many times about how people rely heavily on spirits. Is that a bad thing? Well, they are capable of granting not only strength, as in the case of Comet Sozin, or life, as with the Spirit of the Moon, but they are also likely capable of clearing blockages in the chakras. By using them, one does not have to adhere to the harsh conditions required for the usual path.
Why not forget about everything and rely on spirits? They will give me everything I could ever dream of, and even more. Now that I have a library, I will be smarter than Zhao and use my knowledge to realise my full potential. With them, I will hardly have any weaknesses, such as altitude sickness, and I would not be afraid to fight the Avatar.
Or should I rely only on myself?
"Look how old everything is here, you can't even see the bas-reliefs on the walls anymore," echoed the guests' voices down the corridor. Tai Lee and I walked slowly towards them, a smile creeping across my face.
"Sokka, don't touch anything, you'll break it.
"Why do you think I'll break something? It's you magicians who usually break everything, I just want to find some food.
"Ha ha, come on, let me show you something more fun.
Three voices. A woman's, a man's—grumpy—and a child's. They were approaching very quickly, and I could hear the laughter and excitement of one boy. They were getting closer and closer until finally...
"We're almost there, there's something very... - we crossed paths, or rather, they just flew into us: a boy running along the wall, followed by two young men, appeared from around the corner and almost crashed into us at full speed. At the same time, his eyes widened in extreme surprise. I would have had just enough time to stop him from crashing into me if he had hesitated, but the bald boy with the arrow on his head created some kind of air cushion in front of him, pushed off from the air, and like a skilled acrobat flew over Tai Li and me. Amazing agility.
"Aang, don't run away...
At that moment, his companions appeared, dressed in warm winter clothes and extremely worried about their friend. When they saw us, there was an instant silence, and everyone opened their eyes wide. I just glanced at the Avatar's companions, then turned to him, seriously assessing the man who could lose his temper at any moment.
I could have come up with many scenarios for a chance encounter, even arriving at the last moment, when the Avatar was already losing his temper, and becoming a hero and saviour. But if we were to become friends, it had to be honest and genuine. I hadn't yet decided whether to stray from my path or not.
"Who are you?" asked the girl in the long blue jacket excitedly. She tensed and reached for the water flask on her belt, just in case.
"Eh, monks? You don't look like air nomads," her brother said, staring intently. He sized up Tai Li, and she sized him up. A simple smile appeared on the girl's face. "Or are we actually... ghosts?!
"Sokka, don't say that," the boy shook his head and bowed with his hands together. "They are people. I apologise for my friend, he is just visiting the great temple of the nomads for the first time.
He was extremely happy to see that there were living people in the temple and apparently felt ashamed of his inappropriate behaviour in such a place. It was as if we were the actual priests of the temple... but then again, what else could he think? The boy desperately wanted to believe that this place was full of life. It was obviously unnecessary to spoil the relationship right away, so I held my gaze on him for an extra second, then lowered my hands and copied his bow.
"It's nice to meet you, but it's not for us to judge the behaviour of the people inside this temple. We are just travellers who have been waiting for you... Avatar," everyone immediately blinked.
"Waiting? But how did you know the Avatar would come here? - Sokka raised his iron boomerang sharply, pointing it threateningly at the two of us.
"Calm down! - Aang raised his voice. He was the only one who didn't understand why the presence of any people in this place made his brother and sister so nervous. "Once again, I apologise for Sokka and Katara. My name is Aang, and you are parishioners, I presume? I'm very sorry I disappeared for so long and made you wait, but it's a long story. Can you take me to Monk Gyatso? He's around here somewhere, right?
"...
"Or to any other monk who is the head monk now?
"Oh dear," Tai Lee batted her eyelashes, looking meaningfully at Aang.
How hopeful he is... It's sad to see, he doesn't even notice the local decline. But to dash his hopes so abruptly would be extremely rude.
"That will be problematic, only the spirits know that you have returned. And we learned it from them," Afka jumped onto Aang's shoulders with great interest, starting to examine him. A new smile even blossomed on the boy's face.
"Ghosts? What nonsense, are you going to tell me that ghosts exist too?" Sokka snorted.
"You were just suspecting that they were ghosts yourself," his sister rolled her eyes.
"No, it's true. That fox is a real spirit! And I'm the Avatar, nice to meet you," he giggled like a child as Afka disappeared and reappeared in different places on his body: on his bald head, shoulders, or back. "But I don't see any problem in telling Gyatso that I'm back. Or do you think he'll be angry?
Exhaling, he brought his hands together and walked deeper into the corridor. Aang tilted his head strangely but followed me, asking me a lot of questions. The rest of them followed, squinting suspiciously. I had probably never put more effort into studying someone's emotional state in my life, but now I was seriously choosing my words to conduct this dialogue.
There was no way to calm him down. I couldn't even use the trick I'd used on the Sea Serpent; it didn't work very well on people, let alone the Avatar. I just had to give him some hope that all was not lost, that his people had not been forgotten.
"I have studied the legacy of the air nomads very seriously and spent many days in the library, completely immersing myself in your philosophy. I am particularly amused by your methods of transportation. You invented the air scooter, am I right?
"Yes... but I don't understand why you're not answering my questions," he frowned in extreme dissatisfaction until we finally arrived in the great hall. No, he had nothing to do with the Avatar Tower — I didn't want him to go there and get involved with his past lives. Instead, we appeared in a closed room where no wind could enter and the walls were reinforced with my magic. There were several hundred kilos of abrasive in small tanks, with metal hidden in places. This was a place I had specially prepared to gain at least some advantage.
"Take a look at my technique first," I smiled respectfully as Aang looked around, not recognising the place. At the same time, sand swirled around us, creating gusts of wind, and grains of sand gathered into a scooter that held me on an air cushion, allowing me to ride in any position at extremely high speeds. Aang's eyes, and for that matter, Sokka and Katara's, crawled upwards.
"Aang's technique," Sokka rubbed his eyes.
"Hey, ha-ha, so you're a nomad too!" Aang rejoiced, sitting down on the same scooter. Only it was made entirely of wind and began to ride with me along the same trajectory. "But you're doing it wrong, don't pull in extra debris, your wind should only push! Let me teach you."
At that moment, I jumped off, scattering sand beneath me. Aang landed next to me, confused.
"No, I'll never be able to create a copy of your scooter. Aang, I just said that I deeply respect wind magic and its properties of not harming anyone, but I can only copy this school," and at that moment, grains of sand broke away from the ground, they did not create wind, but only hung around in a peculiar cloud. This was followed by a new wave of shock. "I am an earth mage who uses a branch of sand, but my ancestors learned from the air nomads. I would like to resume my former practice and not let this world... forget your legacy.
"You mean forget?
I glanced at my frozen brother and sister. They quickly shook their heads, as if asking me not to reveal the secret, but I brought my hands together and lowered one of the walls behind which piles of soldiers' armour and monks' bodies were gathered. I wanted to prepare him mentally for this, but I figured the only thing I could do was open his fourth chakra so he could at least accept the situation, but he hadn't gone through the realisation process yet, and I'm no Guru Patik. The most I could do was show him that it was possible to preserve the legacy.
His friends immediately rushed over and began to calm him down, telling him how sorry they were, but in fact, their words did not reach the boy's ears. Only those strong in spirit could cope with such pressure, and apart from me, there were none here. Aang took a confused step forward and recognised one of the wise men — not Gyatso, I didn't even try to look for him, but someone just as wise. Crouching down, literally sitting on the fire soldiers' armour, his emotions exploded, tears poured from his eyes, and with them, the flow of chi in his body accelerated. It was like a mini-nuclear bomb was being prepared. It began.
"Tai Li," the girl instantly jumped up and, in a second, ran around Sokka and Katara and poked her finger at the cervical vertebra, where the first chakra should have been. Blocking it could prevent Aang from entering the state of the destroyer, and in fact, it was the easiest way to deal with him. But his body didn't even have time to weaken, the flow accelerated sharply and broke through the blocked chakra like a dam, suddenly releasing powerful streams of air in all directions. The worst fears came true: she had to block her with something serious.
"A-a-a!" Tai Lee was thrown sharply in my direction, but was caught by the sand and carried to a safe distance. The same was true for the brother and sister, whose bodies were being pulled back; I secured them with armour while they stared spellbound as Aang's eyes and the arrow on his head began to glow.
"He had to know," I replied dryly as Katara shot us a horrified look. But, gritting her teeth, she turned to the boy who had taken flight.
"Aang, I understand how upset you are. And I know how hard it is to lose people you love; I had to go through that when I lost my mother. Your masters and the other airbenders are gone, but... you saw for yourself that their legacy lives on...
What? Was she supposed to read that speech? No, the girl was embarrassed by our presence, and the real words didn't come out. She should have said that they were now a family, but that the extra people who had just happened to meet them, us, had prevented them from showing their true emotions. And me... he doesn't give a shit about me right now, none of my words will be taken into account. That's why Aang turned towards us and only intensified the wind currents.
The Avatar began to approach.
========== Part 45 - The Power of the Avatar and the Sandbender ==========
The most unpleasant and at the same time dangerous factor of failure is the negative impact on the people around me, and it's not just that my personal failure suppresses the luck of others, it's simply that the world around me, my image, micro-signs and many other things could spoil the perception of those around me, so that I would be unlucky. After all, failure is not some sudden and unexpected event, like the rain that I had grown so accustomed to, which appeared after a series of factors that had to occur in order to ruin my life. Or take the breakdowns on the ships I travelled on: every screw, every crooked pipe had gone through an epic journey to ultimately screw me over, which meant that understanding these factors allowed me to fight against my curse. Understanding also told me that Katara's shyness was only a consequence, and Avatar's aggression was the final touch in this string of failures.
"My magic itself is the problem," I thought, shielding myself from the strongest gusts of wind, which were more powerful than any of my techniques, even when enhanced by several chakras. Understanding the reasons could help when everything is already going to hell - and that's not even a figure of speech: everything inside the hall rose from the floor and began to spin, break and crumple violently, as if it were iron armour. "I wanted to get closer to the Avatar and showed him the techniques of the nomads, even a scooter — Aang's personal trick — and Katara saw how this inspired the little hundred-year-old airbender, understanding how important it was for him to feel connected, a connection that went back to the philosophy of Laghima and his need for the separation of peoples. Of course, she was unlikely to have known the latter: Katara lived in even greater isolation than the Kyoshi Warriors, but still, in her opinion, I, restoring the heritage of the nomads, was much more important to the Avatar than she and Sokka."
Only, they forgot to tell him that.
"Damn!" At that moment, the air barrier around Aang, which prevented anyone from even approaching him, released a small sphere of compressed air.
Shhruh*
Releasing my steel fans from my sleeves, which didn't even bend in such a powerful wind, I pulled out a large stone wall that stretched from one end of the hall to the other. The impact caused a violent tremor. A huge network of cracks appeared in the thick, stone wall.
"Did he compress the air to several dozen atmospheres? He was beside himself. I cannot convey in words the grief he felt at that moment: all his love for the world, the kindness he had been taught by the air nomads as they prepared the ground for the opening of the fourth chakra, just as Airo was preparing his Zuko, was completely blocked by grief. Damn it, in the canon, he managed to open the chakra simply by accepting the death of the people surrounding us now," it's understandable why he's so upset now. Until he calms down, he will remain in the peak form of a grieving Avatar, unable to feel kindness, compassion, or love. And since Katara couldn't do it... I'll just show him that there is no division.
Bang*
The wall was literally torn through by the Avatar, who was surrounded by such a powerful air barrier that he couldn't see any obstacles.
"Aang, please!" Katara cried, barely held back by Sokka, who was trying to prevent her from doing something foolish. At that moment, the glowing eyes of the Avatar, who felt no attachment to the world or his friends, focused on them and, without even moving his hands, using only his control of qi, sent a compressed wave of air at them, no different from the sharpest blade.
"Sokka, get your sister under control," I exhaled at the same moment and spoke in a calm voice. Taking control of the armour flying in the air and squeezing it into a blade-like shape, I blocked the air blade with the power of levitation, which, to be honest, had already grown into some kind of telekinesis. It seemed that the metal would easily stop a normal breeze, but a little more and the iron would have torn them to pieces or thrown them at their brother, and I would have been the cause of their death, not Aang," Let him talk to him with a cool head.
The guy who not so long ago suspected me of something dark nodded fearfully and began to calm his sister down.
"Well, whoever is controlling your body right now, Aang, I have to say... - pressing myself firmly against the ground and waving my fans, I merged many pieces of armour together, transforming them into a couple of dozen thick pillars," - Times are changing, soon it won't matter what people you belong to.
The pillars poured down on him in a huge cascade, penetrating the boundaries of his air circle. Let them try to throw them away, but right now my levitation training came into play — it was impossible to move them, at least for the Avatar, who only uses wind, because I had put too much power into them. The attacks simply rained down on his body, hitting him a couple of times. After that, he immediately tried to twist away, but it was no use. A large piece of rock flew at him from behind, propelled by my sand whip.
"Hah," but all he had to do was put out his hand, and the stone was stopped by his personal magic. Aang himself did not yet know how to control earth, but in his Avatar state, there were no special restrictions, his earth magic was more powerful than mine, and what's more, more powerful than Bumi's. Redirecting the stone, he threw it at me with additional acceleration from the air - it looked like I had been shot from a huge cannon.
"Now stop him from using earth," but everything was going according to Afka's plan. The moustached woman sat on my shoulder, watching the situation very closely and forcing me to use Chin's strategies. Move number forty - the knight's move: make the enemy intercept the attack and believe in their advantage, so that you can then play your trump card.
With a sweep of my fans, I simply cut the flying stone in two, allowing the huge boulders to fly past, and squeezed the silver sand into a sphere and threw it at Aang with perfect timing. The pillars blocked the wind, preventing it from knocking down the fragile sand, and the friction created huge electroshocks.
BDZZZ*
He couldn't even react, the air was charged with electricity, even Aang was hit in his sphere, but only slightly, he was still resisting. As Afka said, I had to bait him. Creating a huge stone limb from the ground, resembling the paw of a powerful golem, I grabbed the child with it and tried to slam him into the ground - one moderate blow should have been enough to knock him unconscious, after all, the Avatar's body was still human. But then he suddenly grabbed my earth... and at that moment, the entire hall began to crack.
"This is bad," I thought. The roof, the walls, everything I had created to protect us from the powerful wind that could amplify Aang's streams, broke and merged into an even larger hand. The wind alone began to knock us off our feet, while Aang hung in the air with his limb raised, holding it over me as if to show that our lives were in his not-so-fragile hands. And he was right, a huge stone hand hung directly above his head.
"No... Aang, you can't do this, remember that we decided to be your friends. Your new family," Katara finally realised what to say, "Even these people came here to help you!
"Yes, yes, let's be friends!" Tai Lee said tensely, looking at the giant limb. A flying bison also appeared in the sky, making loud noises in an attempt to attract its owner. And it worked, feelings began to return, and a glimmer of light appeared in their emotions. But the remaining ninety-nine percent was still filled with grief, and it forced Aang to create a powerful tornado around himself, which began not just to knock people off their feet, but to suck them in — even the sand that had been prepared earlier was pulled into the vortex, while the huge hand began to descend.
The charged air made itself felt again, and it became much harder to breathe, sweat dripping from his forehead. So much for fighting the Avatar, naked power in all its glory. Living with a bunch of open chakras was nice, of course, but they only revealed potential that needed to be transformed into power, and I simply hadn't lived long enough for my stone to be on par with the Avatar's.
"Good thing there's a lot of tin cans around," Afka snorted, making me nod. At that moment, she jumped down and vanished, and all the pillars and iron armour from around the temple began to flow towards me, flattening into steel plates and covering me on all sides. Under the ground, in turn, was the termite I had hidden, covering the arms of my iron, golem-like body, which was five metres tall. It still couldn't compare to Aang's simple hand. If there had been stone around me instead of metal, I would have grown even ten metres taller, but even then, I doubt I could have done anything with just my physical strength. But as soon as the electric discharges passed through me, the thermite on my body ignited, causing my limbs to burst into a powerful flame that could not be extinguished by the wind - and it was already able to even the odds somewhat. Because of it, and the last drops of physical strength in my hands, I dug through the stone as if it were butter - it was my most powerful combination at that moment.
But that meant that the clock was ticking until the thermite melted through the armour on his hands and reached me. Of course, there wasn't enough to completely melt a five-metre golem, but inside the spherical compartment where I was, it was already starting to get hot, and the walls were beginning to turn red - I could simply bake to death. I would have gladly protected myself with crystals or simple earth, but they were easily controlled by the Avatar, so I had to endure the heat.
Raising my huge paws, I stopped the stone hand. The wind was no match for such a form, and the strength came from the correct construction and skilful metalworking — my experience in architecture and knowledge of metal, plus a little of my own fire magic, allowed me to overpower the Avatar himself with brute force!
"What the...," Sokka opened his eyes, and even Katara froze in shock. The more the thermite burned, the more I resembled some kind of lava giant that was dangerous to even approach. Seeing that things were not going according to plan, Ty Lee jumped over to the two of them and began to bring them to their senses, asking them to continue calming the raging boy who was suspended in the air and looking extremely grim as he faced me.
"Thank you," Katara leaned on Ty Lee's arm and took a deep breath. "Aang, you must know... we will love you just as much as your previous family did!"
Powerful. Aang's grief was crushed by a powerful pressure, and a tear rolled down his cheek.
Not that he stopped beating me up, I was still waving my fans around inside my golem, breaking the huge fingers of the stone hand, causing it to crack and crumble, but his control weakened. This gave me the opportunity to grab the huge hand and tear it out of its base. It took all my knowledge of levers, proper construction, and metal structures to lift such a huge weight, and even then, the golem creaked loudly. But it was enough to raise the club and strike the Avatar's air dome.
Not hard enough to kill him accidentally, but enough to overcome the pressure of a couple of atmospheres.
Aang was knocked to the ground, his strength drained away. He didn't try to get up, just created gusts of wind around himself. He lay there crying, and although he seemed helpless, only I dared to approach him. Hovering over the guy with my golem-like body, I got out, stepped calmly onto the floor and touched the qi point connected to his spine.
If I hadn't known their system thoroughly, I could have accidentally killed him, but instead I drained the energy flowing through his first chakra and forcibly brought him out of the Avatar state. I didn't kill him, I didn't degrade his qi system or deprive him of his magic, I just cut off his access to his spirit.
"Aang!" At that moment, Katara and Sokka rushed over. They saw that he had come to his senses and sat down next to him, the girl even hugging him to bring him back to his senses.
"Forgive me..." The young man was, of course, beside himself after what had happened, extremely weakened and still feeling a heavy burden on his heart, but everything was fine. How can I put it...
"Dagot? What are you... - Tai-Li approached, looking at my legs in shock, her mouth agape. At that moment, the others also focused their attention on me, seeing that my legs were shaking violently, especially my feet, which had large burns, simply because in order to control that bandura, I had to stand firmly and skilfully on my feet, and my giant had heated up a little.
"Ah, that," I said, glancing dryly at the burnt stumps and smiling cheerfully. "I usually get hit in the face every time I practise a new technique. And I tried everything I could to save them.
Bang*
My legs gave way, and I fell down. At the same time, all my sand and metal lost control. My legs struggled to keep the qi flowing.