Disclaimer: I own nothing

-For the People-

Aang watched the fireball as it passed by his face, noticing that it was on a direct path to a villager. He sent a blast of air at it, just barely diverting it enough to miss the target, destroying an igloo that he'd hoped was empty. The firebender with an angry red scare over his eye was serious, not caring a lick for any collateral damage as he fell into a bending stance.

Well, the Avatar couldn't just let a tribe be reduced to ash when there was an alternative; so dropping his glider and putting his hands in the air, he surrendered, "Go ahead and take me; I surrender, but only if these people are left alone."

There was a look of shock on every one of the pirate's faces, their leader going slack-jaw for a moment. It didn't take long for him to regain his composure, though, grabbing the fallen glider and putting shackles on their new prisoner. "I promise not to raze this tribe if you comply, but if you don't hold up your side of the bargain, everyone here dies, understand?"

The only answer was a terse nod, the Avatar beginning his walk onto the ramp leading up to the metal ship.

The interior of said ship made it obvious as to where these people had loyalty to, but it didn't make sense, Aang hadn't heard of the Fire Nation being at war. He remembered being told of their setting up colonies on other lands, but that couldn't have led to war, could it?

Either way, the child was being shoved down a hallway by two guards with skeleton masks over their faces. This was the time to make his escape, the narrow hallway and lack of any real protection only made things easier, so he took in a deep breath, blowing the air out as hard as his bending allowed, flying into the guard behind him and slamming him against the metal wall. The other was dealt with just as the first, with a gust of air smacking him against the ceiling hard enough to knock him out.

Now, to find his glider. As far as he could remember, the scarred teen had taken it somewhere upstairs, so he made his way to the nearest staircase, jumping over most of the steps. Every door he could see as he ran down the hall was blasted open as he searched for his glider, and every crewman that he found was efficiently knocked unconscious with ease.

Finally, after scouring most of the upper levels on the ship, he found an ornately decorated room, with Fire Nation flags and other memorabilia scattered around on shelves and hung on walls. All Aang cared about was the wooden staff leaned against a large chest in the corner.

As he grabbed the familiar wood, he heard the door shut behind him, and a gravelly voice say "If I knew you'd cause so much trouble, I would have locked you up myself, but I guess taking you down a peg will suffice."

Huh? Why'd he need that, he was just trying to be free, like the monks taught him to be.

Aang's questions halted as he felt the heat of Fire brush past his face. He'd dodged on an old instinct not entirely his, forming an air ball under him to speed around the room as he thought of a plan.

One popped into his head not too long after he started riding along the walls, getting just close enough to the mattress on a small bed to flip it at his opponent, blocked a fireball and squishing him against the wall at the same time.

The fight over, Aang blasted the door open, running for the exit he'd come across earlier. There was little resistance until he reached the deck, where it seemed like every conscious crew member was waiting for him. There was no way he'd be able to beat this many firebenders on his own; Avatar or not, this many opponents could overwhelm him, and no amount of bending prowess would save him.

Nonetheless, he fought, dodging and redirecting as many fireballs as he could, getting singed every so often when his timing was slightly off. At every break he had from the onslaught, he knocked down as many people as he could with air, but it didn't help, there were just too many of them for him to handle.

Aang was getting desperate, he couldn't lose and be taken prisoner, it went against every code the monks had drilled into him since he was first able to walk on his own. All the fighting was for naught though, it'd be hard for some of the older monks to fight so many firebenders, so how could he even hope to come out of this as a winner?

As the Avatar began to panic, a wave of power and hundreds of voices hit him with full force, Aang's thoughts being drowned out as his conscience faded into the background.

All the firebenders on the deck saw were the boy's eyes and tattoos turning a bright and haunting blue, as a cyclone of water formed below him, carrying him into the sky.

The hundreds of previous Avatars took over Aang's mind and body, doing their best to protect their most recent incarnation.

-The Rescue-

Harry grumbled to himself about the foolish airbender, running off to fight alone, without any friends to back him up. He really couldn't blame him, though. It's not like the firebender had never done so himself, but he could still recognize it as the horrible idea it was.

Even if he wanted to, there was no way he'd catch up to Aang at this point, Appa was just too slow to catch up with a determined airbender, and he couldn't just leave the poor bison to freeze to death.

The firebender relaxed against the soft fur of Appa's head, closing his eyes to meditate on the rather eventful day. He honestly had no explanation for today, he stupidly lost a fight against Draco of all people, took a swim in the Black Lake, woke up in an iceberg, was freed from said iceberg by a couple of racist children, took another swim, blacked out, and woke up banished from one of the Southern Water Tribes, only to have his new companion run off to help the people that banished him.

The Spirits were just fucking with him at this point. There was no other explanation, they seemed to hate him after his final confrontation with Voldemort, if the countless attempts to end his life meant anything.

Whatever, they could all go die in the deepest abyss that Earth had to offer for all he cared, consequences be damned.

Opening his eyes again, Harry noticed that he was considerably closer to the village than he'd expected, and that the old ship had shoved off, spewing smog out of its funnel as it faded into the distance. He looked at the tribe itself, only to see the two children from earlier packing up a canoe, or at least that's what he assumed they were doing before they started their staring.

Pulling on the reins to make Appa stop, he asked "Where are you off to? Gonna go catch more airbenders?" It may have come out more derisively than he'd expected, but the little shits had it coming.

"We're going to save Aang," the boy spoke up, "so you can leave if you want, just don't come back."

"Wait, save Aang? Why?"

"Your friends dragged him off." There was a frosty edge to Katara's voice as she glared at Harry. That really wasn't enough to go on for identity, but he could assume that they meant the people in the departing ship.

He sighed again, he'd have to save the airbender, if only to return Appa; he couldn't steal the bison with a clean conscience. "You guys gonna help me save him, or do you want to row your way after a ship ten times as fast as your little canoe could ever hope to go?" It was a simple fact, even the oldest of coal-burning ships were considerably faster than any boat powered by pure, well, manpower.

The two glared at him for a moment, before relenting and throwing their bags onto Appa's saddle and following them soon after.

"Where do you think you're going?" It was the village elder, scolding the three astride the sky bison. After a second, a warm smile overtook her face and she presented a rolled up fur blanket, "You'll need these. You have a long journey ahead of you." Sokka and Katara jumped back down onto the snow, facing the old lady..

She walked up to Katara, saying "It has been so long since I've had hope, but you've brought it back into my life, my little waterbender," the two hugged, and turning to Sokka, she added, "and you my brave warrior, be nice to your sister." Her speaking finished, the elder hugged Sokka as well.

As the two children climbed back onto Appa, she turned to Harry, and spoke quietly to him in a warm voice, "No matter how much these two may bother you on your travels, please do not harm them. They have yet to learn how wide the world truly is." With the smile still on her face, she patted the teen's leg and stepped back.

Harry returned the smile, before turning to the siblings. "Shall we go, then?" Keeping silent, Sokka nodded, though he seemed slightly more relaxed after his elder had shown kindness to the firebender. Harry turned back around, and snapped the reins, "Let's go, Appa."

The bison stayed utterly still, not a single muscle moving.

"Come on, we need to find Aang," there was still no movement.

Katara spoke up, "I know you can do this, Appa, we need to find Aang before it's too late!" No response.

"Go, fly, ascend," Sokka began rattling off various commands in a dull monotone, "Elevate, up, soar," Appa still stayed stubbornly on the ground, though he did begin moving towards the water.

Harry tried thinking back to what had gotten him up into the air when they were fleeing from the ship, "Yee-haw? Hup-hup? Yip-yip?" There was a great lunge at the last phrase as Appa lifted himself from the ground far quicker than the Water Tribe siblings had expected. They both shared a holler of joy at his lift-off, Katara with her hands in the air. In no time, Sokka stopped, though, resting his hand on his stomach as he looked like he was going to be sick.

The lone firebender looked on with a grim look on his face as he saw flames bursting in the sky far ahead of them. He snapped the reins, trying to get Appa to speed up.

It seemed their little friend had started a fight.

A/N: Sorry about the wait, hurricane Mathew hit some of my relatives hard, so I've been trying to help them out and do what I can for them. For now, chapters will be more like this one: longer than my previous chapters, but more sparse as I work on it throughout a week or two. I have no clue about when the next chapter will be or when life will re-stabilize, so sorry in advance.

~LoboTheWolf