Avatar The Last Airbender Fan Fiction ❯ Warped and Disturbed ❯ Air: Oh, Aang, Why? ( Chapter 5 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]
"Air: Oh, Aang, Why?" by Abraxas (2009-01-18)

Aang stopped at the city of Saido by the coast - it was unplanned, rather, circumstances demanded a moment to reflect.

He told the group to explore and buy supplies and he insisted to be left alone - it had to be that way. Because that incident with Batto, with its self-centeredness and cruelty, he had to be cleansed of its Karma. Although he was forgiven by his friends, he was not by his spirit....

Aang walked the streets gazing at its people while they coped, tormented and butchered, with the war. Was it inescapable? He sighed thankful nobody recognized the Avatar.

If the monks were alive they would have chosen the proper kind of test to seek redemption but now, alone, and the last of the air benders, it was his burden....

Fate brought the Avatar where he needed to be....

He wanted a punishment that brought him face to face with reality - dirty, filthy reality - thus, dehumanized, with internal sins externalized he would have been pure again.

Aang disrobed and hid it under a rock behind the shrubbery. Then, as nobody was watching, he crawled into that outhouse. Within its walls the only thought that sustained his will to act was that urge to restore his humility.

Remembering what he saw at the South Pole and at the Air Temple, and what he did showing off at Kiyoshi Island, he realized it was beyond just lying to Sokka and Katara - more, much more, had to be expunged as there was a sin the torment he swore to endure would not cleanse completely - because he ran away from his duties as Avatar and let the world degenerate to its condition.

Sinking into the hole he sat within the abyss and waited for the judgment of the people he failed....

END