Fear The Old
When the sky turned blood red, Aaron knew something had gone horribly wrong.
"What is going on, Father?" Aaron asked with a quivering voice, although he already knew. Any bender with an ounce of spiritual force felt it.
"It's the moon spirit," Ren started. "She'd dead and---"
"And we're screwed." Harlan completed. "There's no tiptoeing around the issue. Our only hope of setting things right is gone. Whatever is going on right now worldwide, is about to get a whole lot worse."
Aaron looked at his grandfather, who had turned pensive. "Is there anything we can do?"
"I…this is not supposed to happen or even be possible," the Old man muttered. "Great spirits don't just die. They're a fundamental aspect of the world. They're eternal, like the mother of faces."
"Weren't the ancients the same?" Aaron asked. "Yet they are dead and the spirit world has not collapsed."
Grandfather gave him a side look, aware of what Aaron had just accused him of, yet no reprimand came. He simply waited, eyes filled with anticipation, so Aaron finished the thought.
"How…How did you keep the world from descending into utter chaos?"
It was a long moment before his grandfather responded.
"By taking on their responsibilities," he said. "It's why I shed my mortal body and now spend eternity in the spirit world, it is to make sure things remain balanced."
Aaron wondered out loud. "Can you do it again? Take on the moon's spirit responsibilities?"
Grandfather shook his head. "Even if its body were here, I couldn't take on the responsibilities of a greater spirit. I simply don't have the power to."
"Isn't there anything we can do?"
"I'm afraid not," Grandpa Paku said, his brows knitting in tight furrows. "You need to be stronger than the spirit you're trying to consume to have any hope of inheriting their domain. We need to find a greater spirit willing to give up a portion of their power and domain if we stand any chance of setting things right."
Aaron felt a nervous twinge in his heart. Given everything he knew about his Grandfather, he'd bet there wasn't a long list of spirits or people that could give him what he needed.
"Would taking a portion of ours work?" Aaron asked.
"It would take months of systematically training and draining you all," Grandfather said. "We simply don't have the time for that. The world would've shattered long before then."
"There's only one spirit powerful enough to give me the strength in the time we have,"
"Who?"
"The Avatar," Yara said, and Aaron felt a sinking feeling in his stomach.
---
Mark woke to find himself hogtied on the insides of a wooden prison with red light peeking in. At first, he thought the paralytic the Ghosts had dosed him with was a lot stronger than he anticipated, but then he tried wiggling out of his restraints and hit his head on the side of the box.
"What the hell happened to the moon," he muttered, and then it dawned on him. "Fuck me. The bastard actually did it."
"Pipe down in there," His favorite ghost threatened. "You'll get your chance to beg and gab. We're already here."
"By here, you don't mean the Phantom's base, do you?" Mark asked.
"Where else could I possibly be talking about," the man said. Mark focused inward and tried to gather Chi, but it moved even slower than it did when he'd come into contact with the Shirsuu paralytic.
He heard a laugh so close that the speaker's breath touched his neck. He looked behind to find the man who'd captured him, looking down on him gleefully.
"We've blocked your entire Chi network and pumped you full of more paralytic. We've been warned about how resourceful and deceptive you can be. There's no escaping this, little one," he sneered, but Mark already tuned him out.
He gulped. If the red sky meant what he thought it meant, then the Phantoms might not be his biggest worry anymore.
"Fucking Samir!"
---
Aaron found Aang messing around with his cousins and nephews. They swamped him like they'd done since the first time they met, peppering him with question after question. They'd known him for months now, but they could never get enough of him it seemed. There was something surreal about meeting the prophesied hero you've trained your entire life to protect.
"Aang!" Aaron called, and the boy turned to him and waved, all smiles.
"Big brother Aaron needs me," he said, and the kids pouted.
"No fair," Mila, the youngest said. "You promised you'd play with us when you got back. Now you're ditching us for grown-up stuff."
He rubbed her head. "I promise to bring you something back on my next trip."
"What about me?" Tobi, the oldest said.
"And you too," Aang tapped his shoulder.
Ling was about to raise her voice when Aaron spoke first. "I'm only borrowing him for a bit. You can have him back when I'm done."
Ling folded her arms and pouted, but she did not speak. Aang quickly rubbed their heads and ran over to Aaron.
"What's going on?"
"It's the moon spirit, Aang," Aaron said. "Didn't you feel her pass?"
"I did, and the kids did too. I didn't just want to upset them by telling them until I was sure," he muttered, his voice strained from the grief. "She'd dead, isn't she?"
"Samir finally made good on his threat," Aaron nodded, folding his arms. "The reports just came in. General Wang led a rescue mission that almost succeeded. Samir killed her before they could get her to safety."
"Somehow, I can't help but feel this is my fault," Aang said.
"Not unless you're the being who set those two maniacs on the planet," Aaron said. "This is not your fault, Aang. If anything, it's mine. I should've taken down Mark when I had the chance," Aaron huffed.
"Do you think I am a bad Avatar?" Aang asked.
"If you're a bad Avatar, then I am a terrible Phantom and teacher," Aaron said, while not entertaining the thought that he might be indeed a bad teacher. "We can only try our best, Aang. We all make mistakes. Not everything bad that happens in the world is your fault."
"What can we do now?" Aang asked, and Aaron hesitated.
"My grandfather has a solution," he said with a deep breath and then flicked on the concealment technique that he'd learned from Dopi."I'm not just sure it's entirely safe for you, Aang."
Aaron had talked to Dopi after the meeting with his grandfather had the prognosis was not good. Sacrificing a chunk of the Avatar spirit would not be without great cost.
"What are you talking about, Aaron?"
"You were right about us, about my grandfather," he said. "To him and most phantoms, the end justifies the means. He has a way to potentially save us all, but I fear that the cost might be too great."
"What's going on, Aaron?"
"He's going to ask you to sacrifice a part of the Avatar spirit to save the world."
Aang's face lost all color. "Oh."
"You and every avatar after you will likely lose the ability to bend water," Aaron said, "but It'll give the Grandpa the spiritual power he needs to replace the moon spirit and restore balance to the world."
Aaron saw the fear in Aang's eyes, but he spoke like he had his mind made up. "If that's what It'll take."
Aaron was not all that surprised that he agreed that quickly. The month of war had hardened the young Avatar. "There's more. Giving him a portion of your spiritual power will also leave your spirit exposed, and trust me you don't want to be defenseless near someone as dangerous as Grandfather."
"What are you trying to say?"
The next words came with great difficulty.
"There's a reason why Grandfather is as powerful as he is. He wiped out an entire race of spirits and stole their knowledge and spirit. If he gets a hand on your powers along with the domain of the Moon spirit…No one man should have that much power," Aaron shook his head. "Even if he is my grandfather."
"You could say I have that type of power," Aang said thoughtfully. "All Avatars do. I think the real issue is that you don't trust him."
Aaron scrunched his face in annoyance and surprise.
"You're right," Aaron admitted. "I've been blind to his many faults until recently. I always thought were fighting the good fight, you know. That everything we did was to set the world free and restore the Air Nation, but the things he's done in the pursuit of power and revenge... He'll be unstoppable if he decides to become the next Sozin."
Aang grabbed Aaron by the shoulder and said with a reassuring smile that frustrated Aaron. "We'll stop him if it ever comes to that. I've got you, Sokka, and Katara. Mark may no longer be with us, but I know there are others who will step up if that day ever comes. Besides, I think you should have more faith in your grandfather. If he's as powerful and dangerous as you say he is, why has he waited until now to act?"
"Because you were dead to the world until a few months ago," Aaron grumbled.
Aang blinked, but in the end, he shrugged. "Still, there's no other choice, is there?"
Aaron sighed. "No, there isn't."
The inevitability of it all frustrated Aaron. He'd asked Dopi about alternatives, and there were no speedy ones. The other Great spirits of the Spirit world were unapproachable, and a few were hostile and unpredictable. There was no telling how they'd react to the request. And even then, traveling and beseeching all of them would take a lot of time—time the world did not have.
He'd even suggested asking his Grandfather to have someone aside from himself perform the technique, but Dopi had pointed out it took time and a lot of repetition to execute a technique like that, even if you knew every single detail.
Still, the timing of all this rubbed Aaron the wrong way.
Aaron grabbed Aang by the shoulder. "Just be careful, Okay. If you sense anything wrong, go into the Avatar state immediately or try to mediate out. My little cousins will kill me if I don't get you back to them."
Aang chuckled and spoke, "I promise I'll be careful."