Avatar The Last Airbender Fan Fiction ❯ Duty Versus Love ❯ The Ultimate Airbending Technique ( Chapter 11 )

LES: Coming up with the Ultimate Airbender technique took me a while, but it made a lot of sense once I came up with it. And, no, it's not an upgrade like Fire to Lightning, or Earth to Metal, or Water to Blood. I still can't come up with a believable upgrade from Airbending. Hell, even Mike and Bryan can't come up with one! It's all ready too versatile to warrant an upgrade. Anyway, this picks up two months later. Katara is four months pregnant and is starting to show. And also, to a certain reviewer (you know who you are), I know I promised to go into more detail about the Airbender repopulation plan during the Summer Solstice, but I've kind of had to shorten it. Hopefully, it will all become clear by the time the Autumn Equinox comes.

 

Chapter XI: The Ultimate Airbending Technique

 

The Summer Solstice and the Four Nations meeting in the Fire Nation had come and gone. This time, Aang had been forced to travel alone, because Katara was still getting morning sick and riding on Appa only seemed to make it worse.

Aang absolutely hating going alone, but Katara insisted on it. After all, they were going to finalize the qualities present in the women used to repopulate the Air Nomads.

Aang was glad to see that the Earth Kingdom readily accepted the standards Zuko outlined. The Water Tribe took some convincing, but they eventually agreed it was for the best.

They also decided that two women from each nation would be a good number to start with. In three years after the children were born, they would assess them to see if any more were needed.

The Council also discussed the women's compensation. After all, surrogacy was not unheard of. It had just never been used on a scale like this.

Aang really had nothing to give, except his services as the Avatar. If any of the women's families ever needed his assistance in anything, and if it didn't go against his worldly duties as the Avatar, he vowed that he would do what he could for them. Those chosen by the Earth Kingdom would get free houses in the Upper Ring of Ba Sing Se and enough gold to match their status. Both the Fire Nation and the Water Tribes would give titles of nobility to the women's families and monetary compensation. All in all, it was a very generous reward considering the normal compensation for a surrogate mother was twenty-five thousand silver pieces. Even Aang's gift alone was priceless.

(A/N: In the United States, surrogate mothers are normally paid around twenty-five thousand dollars. That is where my number came from.)

So, it was decided that during the Summer months, the three nations would finalize their pick for their two women and bring them to the Southern Air Temple for the Autumn Equinox meeting for the final meeting, and leave them at the Air Temple at the conclusion of the meeting so that Aang could do his duty.

All in all, Aang was glad to get away from the Fire Nation and back home to the Air Temple.

Katara told him that the last three months were the hardest on a pregnant woman. And it made him sick to think that he would be spending the hardest time of Katara's pregnancy with other women.

It wasn't just one other woman either, but six.

On the way home, his brooding got so bad that he started to wonder if those women wouldn't mind if he was in the Avatar State as he made love to them. After all, this distastefully duty was the Avatar's duty, so why couldn't he let himself go and let the Avatar Spirit inside him take over?

Of course, he came to his answer quickly. It would terrify the women. He was a monk at heart, so he couldn't ease his own pain like that if it caused someone else pain.

So it was a great relief to get back to the Southern Air Temple; and an even greater relief to see Katara waiting for him.

He leapt off Appa's saddle when the Sky Bison was at least ten feet up in the air, but he landed with the grace of an Airbender and rushed over to Katara, wrapping his arms around her and giving her a passionate kiss.

Aang pulled away slightly and moved his hands down from her sides to her abdomen when he could all ready feel the bump that marked their growing baby.

“I missed you so much, Katara.” Aang said. “Both of you.”

Katara grinned. “Don't get ahead of yourself. I won't be giving birth for another five months. But I missed you too, Aang.” She kissed him.

“How are you feeling?” Aang asked.

“Better now. But I've been driving Sokka crazy with my food cravings. He doesn't know how you deal with me.”

“He'll find out how I deal with you when Suki finally gets pregnant. You just watch.” Aang said with a grin. “I brought you something for your cravings.” Aang handed her a package.

Katara opened it. She gasped. “Komodo chicken meat?” Her cravings had largely consisted of meat cravings, but there was no meat to be had anywhere in the Temple. There wasn't even any game this high in the Patola mountains. These things had led to Katara becoming someone of a vegetarian, though not as strict as Aang, she just ate a lot less meat than before. He had never stopped her from eating meat, per se, but he also never encouraged it. “Aang, you didn't have to do this for me.”

“I know I didn't have to. But I wanted to.” Aang said. “Meat is very good for pregnant women… the best source of protein. The reason you're craving it is because your body needs it. Even Air Nomad women ate meat when they were pregnant because they knew that their needs, and the needs of their baby were more important than an all-ready dead animal. Just know, I'll do anything for you, Katara.”

Katara embraced her husband. “Thank you. Have I told you you're the best husband in the world?”

“You could stand to mention it more.” Aang said, kissing her.

Katara longed to ask him how the meeting went, but she could understand that he wouldn't want to talk about it.

So Katara simply kissed him, diving deeper into her passion for him by the minute.

Suddenly, Aang pulled away from her. “Don't tease me, Katara.”

“I'm not teasing.” Katara said. “I want you.”

“Are you sure? After all, all I've been hearing for the past few weeks is `not tonight, Aang'.”

Katara glared at him. “How many pregnant women have you known in your life?”

“Uh… the one whose baby you helped deliver in the Serpent's Pass?” Aang answered uncertainly. “We didn't get that many pregnant women at the Southern Air Temple. They went to the nuns at the Eastern and Western Temples.

Katara sighed. “Then I'll forgive you just this once. Never question a pregnant woman, especially when she wants you. As I get bigger, you'll get it less and less as I get more uncomfortable.”

“Oh. Then I guess we should make the most of this.” Aang said, kissing her and leading her through the Air Temple to their room.

~~~~~~~~~~

The next day, Toph moved randomly through the halls of the Southern Air Temple, looking for any form of entertainment.

Living in a Temple would have been great for the monks who were content to do little more than sit and meditate all day, but Toph wasn't very spiritual beyond the fact that she believed in the spirits. It was hard not to when one of your best friends is a spirit in mortal form. And it was great for Aang and Katara or Sokka and Suki who could keep themselves entertained, but Toph didn't have their privilege of being married.

Toph was just bored.

She was making her way past the library when she heard someone cry out in shock from inside the large room. It only took her a second to realize that it was Aang. Somewhat glad that something was happening, she rushed into the library.

Once she was inside, she found that Aang was crumpled on the floor, clutching his throat, and coughing violently.

Toph rushed over, afraid that he was chocking on something. “Hang on, Aang!” She raised her hand, preparing to bring it down hard on his back to dislodge whatever was chocking him.

“Wait!” Aang croaked, before going back to coughing. Toph paused, because people normally couldn't speak when they were choking. And now that she was taking the time to listen to his body, she could find nothing physically wrong with him. Or, at least, nothing she could pick up.

“What happened, Twinkletoes?” Toph asked. “I thought you were choking!”

Aang finally seemed to catch his breath. “I'm sorry that I scared you. It just… startled me. I've never… felt anything like that before.”

“Never felt anything like what?”

“I learned the ultimate Airbending technique.” Aang said.

“Well, judging by your reaction, it must be a pretty powerful technique.”

“Powerful? Yes, it is powerful. But it's also very dangerous.” Aang said.

“Dangerous? How could an Airbending move invented by monks be dangerous?”

“I could kill you right now.” Aang said seriously.

Toph didn't reply for several seconds. “Whoa.”

“And, if I learn finer control on it, I could probably use this move to disable any Airbender or Firebender in battle.”

“Wait, so just what is this move?”

“I'm… I'm not totally sure. It was like the opposite of normal Airbending. Instead of bringing the air in and using it, it was like I pushed the air away from my body!”

“So, you made a breeze?” Toph asked, sounding disappointed. “How very anti-climatic, Twinkletoes.”

“No, no, it wasn't a breeze!” Aang said. “It was like… I made a space around my body where there was no air!”

“No air? Please, that's not possible.”

“I swear! Since I am an Airbender, I've been able to feel the air all my life, even when it's still. But, for the first time in my life, I couldn't feel the air move around me.” Aang explained. “I was so shocked, I cried out…” He shook his head. “When I tried to breathe… it was the second most painful thing I've ever felt in my life; the first was getting shot with lightning in Ba Sing Se. I tried to take a breath, but there was nothing there to breathe. Ow…” Aang rubbed his chest. “It still hurts.”

“So… that's what the last Airbender move is?” Toph asked.

“Yes.” Aang said. “No wonder the monks didn't want me to learn this until I came of age. This gives me the power to disable or even kill with a single move!”

 

LES: You know what they say about sex? That sex is like air; it's not important… unless you're not getting any. Anyway, I've come up with an Airbending move that can kill! It makes sense that a powerful Airbender could create a vacuum. Oh, and let's just ignore the faulty logic of Aang being able to make a sound in a vacuum, shall we?