Meeting the Avatars

Sokka felt adrift for a while before opening his eyes again. Beneath his feet he felt solid ground, sort of. Around him was what looked to be a cloudy night sky... except he was standing upside down on the clouds. But before he could freak out properly, the clouds in front of him swirled upwards, shrinking into humanoid shapes until their features become sharper and more well-defined. A tall, imposing man stood right in front of him. He was elderly and wore the red robes of the Fire Nation. To his right stood an equally tall and imposing woman with facepaint and green robes typical of the Earth Kingdom. Then next to her was a woman who had the front part of her head shaven to reveal a tattoo in the shape of an arrow pointing downwards. She was dressed as Sokka guessed an Airbender would be. Then there was a muscular man in Water Tribe garbs... there was no doubt to him... these were the past Avatars!

"Who are you?", the Fire Nation Avatar demanded to know.

Though intimidated a bit, Sokka puffed up his chest. He wasn't afraid of them. He was supposed to be here, after all, since he was the Avatar now and all. "Well, I'm the newest Avatar, part of your club. Sokka's the name, by the way. From the Southern Water Tribe", he introduced himself.

But the man remained unimpressed. "You became an Avatar not at birth, but when you were fully grown. That shouldn't be possible. So I ask you again: Who. Are. You?", he repeated his question, his brown eyes piercing Sokka, who gulped. Well, now he was truly intimidated. This guy had picked up immediately on the fact that he wasn't the rightful Avatar. "And what happened to Aang? What happened to your predecessor?", he continued interrogating him.

Thankfully, Sokka was saved by a voice piping up from the right right next to Roku. "Oh, I'm here! I'm Aang!", it called out. Both Roku and Sokka looked over and saw... nothing. Then they looked down and saw the origin of the voice: A young boy, shaved head, with a similar tattoo to the one the woman with the Air Nomad tunic had.

"You're an Avatar... you look kind of young.", Sokka observed. The boy looked a bit embarrassed and laughed a little, rubbing the back of his head in response.

But even with that cleared, the wizened Avatar did not let up on Sokka. "My name is Roku. I was the Avatar before. Then, once I passed, Aang here was to be my successor. Not you. So how is it that you are here, Sokka of the Southern Water Tribe?", he pressed him.

Since Sokka didn't really know how to leave this weird place, he figured there was no avoiding it. He'd have to tell them the truth. "Well... just between you and me and, uh... the rest of you, or me...", he began, unsure how to refer to the collected Avatars. After all, they were him, right? "... I wished to be the Avatar.", Sokka revealed with a cocky grin.

There was a stunned silence among the Avatars, but only for just a few seconds. "Wish? You can't just wish to become the Avatar!", the woman with the face paint protested vehemently.

"Well, I could and I did.", Sokka shrugged her complaints off. He didn't really feel like he ought to inform them of his powers, they weren't being very polite to him. "But what else was I supposed to do? The Fire Nation's been attacking all other nations for a hundred years now and there's no Avatar to be found! I don't know where you've been hiding, but we really could've used your help like, oh, I don't know, a hundred years ago?", he argued, turning to Aang.

Now the young boy looked rather guilty. "I... I didn't want to be Avatar. I was just happy enough being Aang. So, I... I left the Southern Air Temple.", Aang admitted haltingly. "I wanted to return, I really did, I just wanted some time to think, but... there was a storm and... I don't remember what happened next.", he finished his short tale about his tenure as the Avatar.

Roku looked at the young boy with pity. "In a time of great need, the Avatar can call upon the combined might of his past lives. That is what is called the Avatar State. Even an unrealized Avatar can achieve this state, if only involuntarily. Caught in the storm, Aang saved himself and his air bison in a shell of ice, where he remained...", he explained. "... until you came along.", he added with a sharp tone, glaring at Sokka.

The implication was clear, even to Sokka: With his wish of becoming Avatar, he had stolen the powers from Aang. And without them, Aang had perished in that icy prison of his. With wide eyes, Sokka looked at Aang and the boy back at him, fully realizing what had happened. "I'm sorry, I... I had no idea...", was all Sokka managed to say to apologize. This wasn't at all what he'd had in mind when he made that wish. He wanted to save people, be a hero. Instead, his wish cost Aang his life. And so his tenure began with a minus one in the 'People saved'-category.

"It's... it's okay. Really, it's okay. You didn't know and I didn't want to be the Avatar anyways, so... hehe...", Aang chuckled unconvincingly, rubbing the back of his bald head. Sokka couldn't help but admire the kid. Yeah, him running away had caused all heaps of troubles, but he could sympathize with his anxiety about shouldering all that responsibility. And when faced with the realization that he was dead, he tried to laugh it off to make the person responsible for it feel less bad.

It was the previous Air Nomad Avatar that spoke up next, cutting through the grim silence that followed. "What's done is done... and if what you say is true, the world is in dire need of the Avatar again. Sokka, are you ready to accept this task? To bring the world back into balance? To do whatever is necessary for the good of all?", she asked of him.

Though shaken by the revelations still, Sokka did his best to compose himself. "I am, I swear it.", he nodded.

"Good... then you must leave your home. You'll need to learn how to master the four elements. Only as a fully realized Avatar do you stand any chance at this mission.", the female Avatar from the Earth Knigdom instructed him.

"Wait! I have to learn how to bend the elements? Can't you just... give me the knowledge right now?", Sokka suggested. Surely that'd be the easiest option?

But Roku shook his head. "No. That is not how this works. And besides, learning how to bend water, earth, fire and air isn't the only reason for your journey. Every Avatar travelled around the world, not just to learn bending, but to learn about the people, the lands and the spirits. Without such experiences, you'd be like a sword without a handle, dangerous to everyone, even yourself.", the old Avatar explained.

Sokka had a suspicion that he could just wish them to give him their knowledge and bending abilities. Something about being told that this wasn't how things worked caused him to really want to defy them and wish for it anyways. But Rokus words made sense... could he wield such power responsibly? A day or two ago, he would have said yes immediately. But now, confronted with the consequences of using his other, more powerful wishing powers freely, he wasn't so sure anymore.

Besides, travelling the world... that sounded fun. Who knew what babes were just waiting out there to meet him? Just thinking about it made his mouth water. "Alright, I'll do it!", he agreed, perhaps a bit too enthusiastically, since the Avatars in front of him seemed less than impressed as they started to murmur amongst themselves.

"Is this really a good idea?"
"Let's just hope he's up to it."
"We're fuc-"

"HEY!", he shouted, silencing them. "I'm the Avatar now, so you gotta deal with it!", he proclaimed proudly, standing as tall as he could, fists on his hips, looking every bit as capable as any of them... or at least, he hoped.