71 Chapter 71 - Avatar Roku

A few minutes after they sail next to the leading ship, a plank is lowered into their deck. Azula, the two elderly women, and many soldiers appear on the plank in an orderly fashion. Azula walks onto the ship which has all the high-ranking officers who guard the sea border of the fire nation.

"Princess Azula, it's so nice to see you again." Zhao walks forward and bows.

".....who are you?" Her question made the man grunt like he was extremely embarrassed before he smiles it off.

"Haha, I'm Commander Zhao. I'm the person who caught Jeung Jeung."

"Ah Yes! The master fire bender who escaped our capture. If I recall, there was a Zhao on the report." She speaks like she just remembered, but it only made him more embarrassed.

"Let's go to the command room. We have refreshments waiting for you. Princess." He lets her go first before following after.

As they're walking, Zhao has a constant grimace on his face. Azula didn't turn around a single time and just when they reach the door, she speaks.

"I can tell you're a prideful man, commander. But don't let your pride cloud your judgement." Her statement reminds him of his actions for the past few minutes and he is shocked that she could tell.

"Yes, Of course. Princess." He opens the door for her with a hurried step.

Azula walks in and everyone inside bows to her. She smiles before taking a seat at the position which is usually held for Zhao. However he doesn't make any ruckus as the room goes back to normal.

"Now, let's talk about the avatar." Azula leans on her hands and her smile made everyone looking at it shiver.

While Azula was with Zhao and seras was in the spirit world, Zuko and Iroh were in the mountains looking for something. Zuko was annoyed because it has nothing to do with the avatar.

"What are we doing here uncle!?" Zuko finally loses his patience and yells.

"I noticed steam rising above the tree line and remembered something an old friend told me about which is in this area." He moves a few branches while speaking.

"What could possibly be worth searching this area for? It's been nothing but trees for miles."

"Yes that may be true." He moved another branch before a large smile appears on his face.

"However, that makes it all the more rewarding when you find what you were looking for." He moved to the side and many large pools of water appear in front.

Zuko notes large amount of heat emanating from hem with an equal amount of steam. He is mesmerized when he notices that his uncle is taking off his clothes.

"Ugh, uncle!"

"What? Did you think I would leave a perfectly good hot spring after walking on my aching ankles all day?" He is down to his underwear when he got done asking the question.

"But-I-agh! Fine, I'll come back in an hour and we'll resume our search for the avatar." He storms off with Iroh waving goodbye.

"Ok. Goodbye nephew!" He yells.

Seras has been in the spirit world for about a day when she is transported back to the real world. When she is about to stand up, katara runs over and hugs her which topples them both to the ground.

"I thought you were gone." Katara states while tearing up.

"I knew everything would work out ok. But thank you for worrying." Seras pats Katara's head and hugs her back.

Later, while the village is cleaning up, the head Thanks aang for his help and decide to give them some cash and supplies. The gang thank the man and when he leaves aang turns to the group. He says that he needs to talk to the Previous Avatar and he thinks he's found a way to do it.

"That's great!" Katara says.

"Creepy, but great." Sokka says.

"There's a temple on a crescent shaped island and if I go there on the solstice, I'll be able to speak with him."

"But The solstice is tomorrow!" Sokka yells.

Yeah and There's one more problem."

"What other problem could there be!?"

"The island is in the fire nation." This makes them gasp.

"....Of course." he sighs in annoyance before sitting on a boulder.

"why can't it ever be easy? I mean why isn't there another mystical island that's not in the fire nation!? Like what about the earth kingdom? The earth kingdom is huge!" Sokka keeps complaining but nobody is listening to it.

Afterwards, while the gang is sleeping. Aang tried to get appa and fly to the island himself. He tries to explain to appa that he doesn't want to get the rest in danger.

Katara tried to guilt trip into not going, but aang remembers about the giant comet from his vision and says he has to go.

"Then we can't let you go alone. We started this journey together and we will see it through together as well." Sokka says.

They all hop on appa and Aang says Yip Yip. A few hours after they left, the village head comes out of a building to find Zuko staring at him. He gives up aang's heading rather easily and zuko leaves with his half naked uncle afterwards.

The gang fly in relative peace and reach the edge of the firenation border with about an hour before sunset. They notice Zuko's ship behind them and sokka gets worried.

"You can't Zuko! Don't you remember that you were banished!?" Iroh is on the deck, fully clothed while yelling at his nephew.

"Do I remember? Of course I do!!" He touches his scar.

"I can never forget." His whisper is only heard by Iroh which made him sad.

"I know you remember, but if you enter the fire nation while banished, you could get thrown in prison. Or worse!"

"I'm sure my father will understand. I'm chasing the avatar." He says with hope.

"You give him too much credit, zuko. My brother was and is not an understanding man."

"I have to try, Uncle! If I don't capture the avatar, my life will never go back to normal! How will I restore my honor if someone else catches him!?"

"You don't need to restore anything! No matter what your father says, you know that you have honor." This causes the young man to flinch, but it wasn't enough.

"I've made my decision Uncle. Helmsman! Keep going." Iroh merely shakes his head in disappointment before walking away.

"Soldier! Set up the catapult!" He commands his men to which they get to work.

A large catapult like weapon slowly rises out of the deck and three men carry a large boulder to the opening. Another pouts oil on top and afterwards the last man lights it on fire with his fire bending. Zuko nods before raising his hand while staring into the sky in front.

"Fire!" His arm swings down and the weapon fires.

Right after they notice the ship, a giant rock covered in fire is shot at them.

"Fireball!" Katara yells and appa dodges it.

The fireball misses them and a smell that makes seras almost vomit surrounds them.

'Damn I didn't think this through. One of the Bad things that comes with super senses.' She Gags and thinks to herself.

As seras was trying to prevent herself from vomiting, the gang discusses the blockade in front of them and their plan to deal with it.

Seras finally suppresses her gagging and looks forward to see the ships about to release a wave of fireballs. She is first shocked before an angry look follows.

"Oh hell no! I'm not dealing with that smell again!" She yells out before going to aang's position on Appa's head.

"Aang, I'm going to need a little favor."

"What's that?"

"Can you make appa stop in place? I'll deal with the fireballs."

"How!?" Sokka yells.

"How do you think? Brute force." She smiles.

".....fine. I'll believe you seras." Aang States After a few seconds in thought.

"Thanks." She says back while appa stops.

As soon as her voice ends she notices that the fleet has released hundreds of fireballs toward them. She takes a deep breath and punches out with half force.

A split second later a fire wave that the size of which can only be described as a tsunami, is released from her hand and is sent to the fireballs at great speed.

Most of the fireballs hit this wave and crumble under the seer temperature before falling to the ocean blow. The rest of them are still heading toward appa and seras smirks.

She lifts her other hand and the balls stop mid air and begin to converge around appa in a circle. She then puts them in a horizontal line in front before she uses her pointer finger to fling them to multiple ships. They hit and the ships begin to sink rapidly with all of the soldiers escaping to other ships.

Appa begins to fly again through the gap she made and she turns around to see both sokka and aang have their mouths agape in shock.

"Woohoo! Take that firenation!" Sokka yells ecstatically while aiming a bunch of gestures to the remaining ships as they pass.

Seras notices Zhao, and gives him a smile before waving him goodbye. Zhao doesn't respond because of shock when seras notices another ship. It looks familiar to her and soon she remembers why.

'Why is Azula's ship here? I didn't change any of the events? Did something out of my expectations happen?'

The gang soon arrives at the island with no problems and they bring appa to a covered area he will stay while they go inside.

"Be a good boy and try not to be noticed." Aang says while rubbing his nose.

The rest leave and seras gives appa about 10 watermelons before following after them.

'I have to replenish my stock soon. Thankfully I have the perfect ability to steal without anyone noticing.' Seras thinks to herself as she doesn't have many fruits left to give appa.

They get to the entrance of the tower to see that it looks like it has been abandoned for years. Aang opens the door and they walk-in to a pristine looking inside when they hear a noise from behind.

5 men wearing formal attire mainly of red material are behind them. The leading figure looks super evil and he speaks.

"We are the fire sages, guardians of the temple of the avatar."

"Great! I am the avatar." Aang states with relief.

"We know." The evil looking man breathes in and punches out a thin column of fire.

Seras flicks out a small fireball of her own and it makes his disappear by going into the center and pushing through. Her fireball continues on to their direction.

This move surprises them as they didn't expect a firebender to help the avatar and to have so easily deflected their bending.

The lead sage makes a move to deflect the fireball but he underestimated its power and it burns his left arm.

"AAAGH!" The man screams while clutching his arm.

"What are you doing? We have to go!" Seras states as she starts running.

"Oh yeah!" Aang says snapping out of his dazed state.

'She seem to enjoy inflicting pain on others. Is this what Bumi meant?' He thinks of the smile See had while running.

They take many twists and turns until they reach an area where one of the sages is waiting. aang was in the lead so he immediately runs backward.

"Wrong way!" He yells.

"Wait! come back!" The sage yells before running after them.

They run into another hallway which ends at a window. The sage is right behind them and they turn back.

"I don't want to fight you. I am a friend."

"Firebenders aren't our friends." Sokka states while they all get into a battle stance except seras.

"Hey." Seras says accusing sokka.

"You're an exception seras." He smiles awkwardly.

"I know why you're here avatar." The sage walks forward and bows before saying.

"You do?" Aang asks back while relaxing his stance.

"You wish to speak to avatar Roku. I can take you to him."

"How?"

The man tilts a lamp to one side and firebends into a hole which opens a secret passage way. They hear the leading mans voice as an echo and the nice sage urges them. The gang walks inside and the man closes the door behind them.

The man who told them his name is Shayu, shows them the way through the secret passage while explaining to them who the fire sages are and what they were supposed to do. He goes on to say that due to the next avatar not appearing, the future sages got disappointed and drifted from their true duties.

They reach the end and the sage lifts up the ceiling which opens them up to a giant room with a huge ornate door featuring five dragon figures.there is a firenation symbol behind the dragons, the man gasps while saying no.

"Shayu, What's wrong?"

"The sanctuary doors are closed."

"So? can't you just open it with firebending like you did with that other door?" Katara asks.

"No, only a fully realized avatar is powerful enough to open this door alone. Otherwise The sages must open the doors together with five simultaneous fire blasts."

Sokka is rubbing his chin in thought before he murmurs to himself.

"Powerful firebending?"

"I got it!" He yells out.

"Who's the strongest firebender we know?" He asks rhetorically to which they all look at seras who is leaning against one of the columns.

"Fine, step back." She stands straight before cracking her neck.

They move out of the way and she walks closer to the door. Shayu is confused and looks to aang for an answer. All he gets is a hush on the lips by Sokka.

Seras takes a breath before punching out lightly. 5 steady streams of fire are released that makes the leading sages look like a toothpick. They enter the dragon's mouths and the rubies they have for eyes light up.

Shayu's mouth slacks open in surprise as he never heard of a firebender doing this themselves without being the avatar.

Aang walks inside and the doors begin to close behind him. The rest wait out front for him to return.

Aang walks further in and sees the giant statue of Roku. The beam of light is hitting the statue but nothing happens. Aang gets worried before the statue's eyes light up and the room gets covered in a cloudy mist.

Aang gets transported to a mountain top and sees Roku in front of him. He is wearing fire nation clothes and has a long white beard. He gives an amicable smile before speaking.

"It's good to see you Aang. What took you so long?" His voice echoes.