The Southern Air Temple rose like a ghost from the clouds, its shattered arches and overgrown courtyards a testament to a century of silence. Zale trailed behind Aang, whose usual bounce had dulled to a somber tread.
"This was the meditation hall," Aang whispered, brushing dust from a faded mural of flying bison. "Monks would float here for hours."
Zale's fingers grazed the cold stone. This isn't a set. These aren't characters. The weight of reality pressed down—the acrid tang of ancient ash, the way Katara's breath fogged in the high-altitude chill. Aang's grief wasn't a plot point; it was raw, bleeding.
"Race you to that spire!" Zale blurted, desperate to shatter the gloom.
Aang's eyes lit up. "You're on!"
They scrambled up crumbling staircases, Zale's laughter echoing where air benders once sang. For a moment, he forgot—forgot he didn't belong, forgot the future looming over them. Just two boys chasing sunlight through ruins.
---After a while---
By a moss-crusted fountain, Zale stared at his reflection. I bent a tidal wave. Why can't I do this? He flicked his wrist. The water quivered, producing a single wobbling droplet.
"You're forcing it," Katara said, leaning against a pillar. "Bending's not just motion. It's… here." She pressed a hand to her heart.
Zale grimaced. In the show, she struggled too. But this isn't a montage. His droplet plopped pathetically.
"When I first tried," Katara murmured, "I could only make a snowball. My brother laughed for days."
"Hey!" Sokka yelled from across the courtyard, tripping over a loose tile. "I heard that!"
Katara rolled her eyes. "Point is, you're not alone. We'll train. Together."
The nursery area of the temple stopped them cold. Toys littered the floor—a wooden bison, a spinning top. Aang knelt, trembling.
"They were just kids," he choked out. The air crackled.
"Aang, don't—" Katara reached for him, but his tattoos already glowed white-hot. A whirlwind erupted, hurling ancient dust into a cyclone.
"WHY? WHY DID THEY DO THIS?!" The Avatar's voice boomed, shaking the temple.
Katara waded into the storm, arms outstretched. "You're not alone anymore. We're here. I'm here."
The glow faded. Aang collapsed into her arms, sobbing. Zale stood frozen, throat tight.
"We'll help you rebuild it," Zale vowed, surprising even himself. "However we can."
The lemur's screech shattered the tension. It dive-bombed Sokka's head, snatching a jerky strip from his grip.
"Thief!" Sokka flailed. "Furry little thief!"
Aang grinned through red-rimmed eyes. "He's perfect. Momo… like the peach pit game!"
As Momo settled on Aang's shoulder, Zale eyed the lemur, Momo was softer, his chirps more musical than any animation.
"Dinner's on me," Zale announced, desperate to contribute. He gathered wild onions, pine nuts, and the fish Sokka "accidentally" scared into Katara's ice trap.
"No utensils? Challenge accepted." Using flat stones as pans and seaweed wrappers from his parka, Zale whipped up crispy fish tacos with a ginger-infused glaze—a riff on his mom's (past life moms'?) recipes.
Sokka inhaled the food, "Are you a spirit? Did the Ocean Spirit possess you to cook?"
Even Momo chirped approvingly, stealing a berry garnish.
Around the campfire, Katara hummed her mother's lullaby.
"You're weirdly good at this," Sokka said, mouth full. "Waterbending? Trash, Cooking? Legend."
Aang flicked a nut at him. "Zale's just a late bloomer!"
"Element Bending's hard," Zale mumbled, staring at his hands. Unlike fire bending, which I know arrives with a comet. Unlike blood bending, which Katara will—
"Look!" Aang pointed. The first stars pierced the twilight. "That's Guru Laghima's constellation. He wrote, 'Let go your earthly tether—'"
"—Enter the void, empty and become wind," Zale finished without thinking.
Three heads swiveled.
"You… know Air Nomad philosophy?" Aang breathed.
"I—uh— Seems so…" Zale said being confused himself, those words came out of him on its own.
Katara squeezed his arm. "The spirits work in strange ways."
Zale forced a laugh. "Yeah... Spirits..."
After filling their stomach, they didn't think it was good for Aang to linger around the temple too much so, they flew to where Aang wanted for the next destination. Unknowing to them a fire ship saw them flying away from the temple.
Kyoshi Island glittered like an emerald in the sea, its shores dotted with cherry blossoms. Aang whooped as Appa descended, already eyeing the giant koi fish circling the lagoon. "Race you to the water, Sokka!"
"No bending!" Sokka yelled, but Aang was already sprinting, air bending himself onto the back of a koi. The fish surged forward, Aang clinging to its fins like a surfboard.
Zale and Katara settled by the shallows, practicing water forms. Katara's movements were fluid, a ribbon of water spiraling around her. Zale, meanwhile, managed only a shaky orb that collapsed into his lap.
"Maybe… I need a break," he muttered, retreating to a shaded rock.
"Meditation helps," Aang called, now balancing upside-down on the koi's nose. "Air benders clear their minds to feel the wind!"
Katara raised an eyebrow. "Since when do you meditate?"
"Since Master Gyatso hid my glider in a cloud!"
Zale crossed his legs, mimicking Aang's instructions. Breathe in. Breathe out. Let go. But Katara fidgeted beside him, slapping mosquitoes. "This is boring."
"You're thinking too much," Aang said, poking her forehead. "Be like water—wait, that's your thing."
Zale closed his eyes. Slowly, the world dissolved—the chatter of Sokka bargaining with Momo about some fruit, Momo's chittering, the salt-kissed breeze. Then, a voice: "Thank you."
He stood in a glacial grotto, facing a boy who mirrored his face. Original Zale. Beside him, a woman with Katara's eyes smiled. "You've kept him safe," she said, ice-blue robes shimmering. "Water bends not by force, but by listening. Let it speak to you."
The vision fractured, her final words lingering: "The tide honors patience."
Aang's scream shattered the calm. "UNNNNNAGIIII!"
The Unagi's serpentine head erupted from the waves, chasing Aang as he air-scooted ashore. Sokka, mid-bite into a stolen fruit, froze. "Why is it always—"
THUD.
Aang collided with Sokka, tangling them in a net meant for crabs. The Unagi loomed, then paused, and returned back to the ocean.
Katara doubled over laughing. "This is the warrior who fights the Fire Lord?"
Zale snorted. "At least the Unagi thinks he's shiny."
That night, Zale hovered over a cookfire, infusing seaweed stew with ginger—another Earth-world recipe. Katara prodded the pot. "You're weirdly good at this."
"Cooking's just… bending but with ingredients ," he joked.
Aang slurped loudly. "If you cooked for the Fire Lord, he'd surrender."
Sokka, still nettled by the Unagi incident, grumbled, "Can we focus on real problems? Like how Zuko's probably tracking us right now?"
Zale stiffened. Azula's next. Then Ba Sing Se. Then—
"Relax," Katara said, mistaking his panic. "We've got the Avatar, a master chef, and me." She flicked water at Sokka. "And… whatever you are."
"The guy who keeps you all alive!"
Later, Zale knelt at the tidepools, exhaling slowly. Listen. Don't force. The water stirred, not in droplets but in a lazy spiral, weaving through his fingers like a ribbon.
Katara gasped. "You did it!"
"Not yet," Zale murmured. But for the first time, the ocean hummed in his veins.
Aang tossed him a shell pendant. "For your first bend! Now you're officially Team Avatar."
"We're naming it now?" Sokka groaned.
As laughter echoed, Zale clutched the shell. I'll get stronger. For them, for myself and for everyone.