Zuko stared down at the pebble sitting in the palm of his hand. The pebble stared back, unmoving. Well, insofar as an inanimate object without eyes could stare back. It frustrated Zuko, that the stupid little rock wouldn't budge, no matter how hard he concentrated. The most frustrating part was, he didn't even know where to start.

"What's taking so long?" Rohan's voice broke into the older boy's thoughts. "You didn't have any problems blowing things up before."

The former prince sighed. "I was just trying to earthbend. I'll have to learn it eventually." He rose from where he had been sitting, on a fallen tree in the forests surrounding Mt. Chomolungma, and paced agitatedly, the pebble clenched tightly in his fist.

"Only after you master waterbending." Rohan reminded him. "I know you're impatient, but there's probably a reason-"

"And what would that be?" Zuko snapped, suddenly feeling irritated. "The longer I take to master the elements, the longer the war goes on, and the more people die! I know rushing things won't bring back everyone that's died, but if I can stop the fighting..." He tossed the pebble away, watching in silence as his best friend caught it and held it in the air, spinning in the wind.

"I haven't seen you lose your temper like that since you started your training." Rohan remarked dryly. "Something's on your mind."

Zuko wondered sometimes how the younger boy had learned to read him so well after the span of only a year. Back in hom- back in the Fire Nation, only his uncle had understood him well enough to know how to get him to talk when he was feeling moody. "It's Mai and Ty Lee." He said finally. "While I was learning airbending, I was so busy that I didn't have time to think about the war, but them showing up last week reminded me that the world out there is still fighting. I've mastered fire and air, but that's still less than half of what I need to know to be the Avatar."

"You are the Avatar, no matter how many or few elements you have mastered." Rohan let the pebble drop into his own hand. "And if your progress in air is any measure of your standards, you'll master water and earth in no time. As a matter of fact, you've already surpassed me, I'm still having trouble with the thirty-sixth step." The pebble rose up from Rohan's outstretched palm, and vibrated slightly as it hovered in midair, but nothing happened.

"It's not so different from firebending." Zuko admitted. "There's a technique called combustionbending that involves tattooing an eye in the center of your forehead, allowing you to channel chi from there into any object, making it explode. Cramming a lot of heat into a small space quickly enough, and it'll expand just as rapidly."

"And so the student has become the master." Rohan grinned. "Using firebending to help with airbending. Only the Avatar could think of such a thing."

Zuko flushed. "Not necessarily. When I first came here, to this mountain, I wasn't used to the cold yet. Uncle Iroh taught me a way to keep myself warm with nothing more than my breath, without even making a flame. He said it was an airbending technique, though he didn't say how he learned it."

"It must have been the White Lotus. You meet a lot of interesting people through that organization."

A thought struck Zuko. "Rohan, are you a part of the White Lotus?"

To his surprise, the airbender laughed. "Nah, I'm no good at Pai Sho. It's too fancy for me. I like to throw pies at people's heads, not sit and move little wooden tiles around a board. Still, it's interesting what you can learn from people of the other nations, especially like the tattoo thing you told me about."

"Well, why don't you come with me?" Zuko said seriously. "I'll have to move on soon, to find someone among the Water Tribes to teach me waterbending. Uncle Iroh and I could probably handle ourselves, but we'll need all the help we can get, and you'd be able to see the world."

"Just like the Air Nomads of old." Rohan smiled. "Perhaps, but only once I can get this last technique. I'm not a master until I do, and we still have to travel to the monastery at the top of the mountain after this."

It is commonly believed that there were but four Air Temples around the world, where the Air Nomads resided when they were not traveling around the other nations. However, these were but the largest and most well built of the airbenders' structures. Every nation had their secrets, and the Air Nomads had constructed smaller monasteries scattered across the globe.

Mt. Chomolungma was technically under the dominion of the Earth King, though it really held no value to the Kingdom. As impressive as the title of the tallest mountain was, it was more valuable as a part of the Myahar mountains, which themselves only served as a barrier between the Fire Nation and the Earth Kingdom. So it had been easy for the Air Nomads of past generations to construct a monastery at the peak of Mt. Chomolungma.

In the years following the Fire Nation's attack on the Air Nomads, Avatar Aang had led the remaining airbenders to this particular temple, as it was the safest location for the hunted people. At that height, only those with control over the winds could breathe properly, and sustaining fire would have been difficult at best. The tunnels that the Air Warriors of the present lived in were carved out over the course of decades, first by Aang using earthbending, and later by the warriors themselves. The monastery was a secure location, but not suitable for an entire nation of people to live in, and had since been returned to the state it had been prior to the Hundred Years' War. On occasion however, an apprentice Air Warrior would undertake their final test, climbing the entire mountain to reach the original monastery at its greatest height.

It was this test that Zuko and Rohan were going through now, inching their way up the side of Mt. Chomolungma. The two had left behind the forests far below, having passed even the coniferous trees that survived beyond their deciduous cousins. Here, there was nothing but icy rocks and massive snowdrifts, with no vegetation to be found. Were it not for their training, the two boys would have surely frozen to death before they had a chance to asphyxiate in the thin air of the upper atmosphere. As it was, they had enough difficulty scaling the frozen cliffs.

"Can't we do anything about this wind?" Zuko grumbled as the howling gale threatened to pluck him from the side of the mountain. He'd survive, he and Rohan had already been thrown off several times only to land as light as a feather. One of having mastery over the air. Even so, it was annoying to lose progress so.

"Apparently not." Rohan replied, his voice carrying easily to Zuko's ears despite the wind. Sound bending made shouting almost unnecessary, though it also tended to distort the speaker's voice. "I'm having trouble just keeping the air around us thick enough to breathe."

"Yeah, I've noticed that too." Zuko groaned as he heaved himself over the top of the cliff, shaking out his tired muscles. "I don't get it, if the air's so thin, why is the wind so powerful?"

"The older monks say-" Rohan was cut off momentarily by a particularly strong gust of wind. "They say that the peak of Mt. Chomolungma penetrates into the barrier between the physical and spiritual worlds, and that's why bending is so hard up here. Because we're close to the spirit world."

"And the wind?"

"Only seems so powerful because we can't control it." Rohan sighed as he gazed upward. There was still no sign of the monastery. "C'mon, let's keep going."

The sun had long since dipped below the horizon since the two boys had set out upon their journey, and the sky was filled with hundreds of thousands of glittering stars. The half-moon shone down a dim light, and Zuko wondered idly if the moon had a spirit. He'd learned during his time among the Air Warriors that most things had spirits, though few were important or large enough to have any significance. The Avatar figured that, if anything were large enough to have a spirit, it was probably the moon.

"Look!" Rohan shouted suddenly, and Zuko followed the direction of his friend's pointing finger. Just a hundred feet above them sat a series of slender stone towers. It wasn't as grand or majestic as the main temples that Zuko had seen in pictures, the stone structures were close to collapsing, in fact, but it was unmistakably an Air Nomad building. Bolstered by the sight of their goal, the two boys doubled their efforts, ignoring the winds that pulled at them with even greater intensity. Before long, they had reached the peak of Mt. Chomolungma, the world's highest mountain.

Rohan and Zuko stood side by side as they stared at the yawning void of the monastery's entrance. "Age before beauty." Rohan finally broke the silence, motioning for Zuko to enter the ancient building first.

"Pearls before swine." Zuko rolled his eyes as he led the way into the monastery. The inside was pitch black, and he tried to muster up a fireball in his hand. To his dismay, the best he could manage was a tiny flame, almost like a candle. Zuko wondered how the old Air Nomads had ever found their way around this place at night. No wonder it had been abandoned.

The two boys picked their way through the old ruins, sidestepping huge blocks of stone that had fallen out of the ceiling, letting beams of moonlight shine through. "Any idea what we're looking for?" Zuko asked.

Rohan shook his head. "No, Dad said our final test was getting to the monastery. He didn't say anything else."

Zuko laughed as the two of them came to an open courtyard, where the sky shone above in all its brilliance. "Maybe we got here earlier than expected. After all, I am the Avatar, and you're the youngest airbending master to ever live."

Rohan opened his mouth to answer when he was interrupted by Tenzin's disembodied voice. "Oh no, we've been waiting for quite some time."

Zuko and Rohan whirled around to see the older airbender standing behind them. Neither of them had even heard him approach. His grey-white robes had allowed him to blend in almost perfectly with the snow-covered stones of the courtyard. Wait, 'we'? It dawned on Zuko that there were others with them in the courtyard. Jinora, the rest of the High Council, even Iroh were all gathered, dressed in the same grey-white robes.

"Congratulations, Rohan, Zuko." Tenzin spoke. "The time has come for you to be recognized as Warriors in full, and masters of airbending. Now, kneel."

Rohan sank down to one knee, and Zuko followed his example. From the folds of his robes, Tenzin produced a brightly polished sword that glittered in the starlight. The blade had a series of holes of different sizes drilled through it. Zuko had learned that each Air Warrior's sword had a unique pattern of holes, and every blade produced a different sound.

Tenzin gently tapped the flat side of his sword against each boy's shoulder. "The two of you have completed the thirty-six steps of airbending and are accomplished in all the ways of the Air Warriors. Your training is complete. Now, rise."

Slowly, Zuko got to his feet, dimly aware of Rohan doing the same beside him. He could scarcely believe it. He had mastered airbending!

"Congratulations, Zuko." Iroh strode forward, holding a long object wrapped in cloth. "I'm very proud of you."

Zuko grinned. "Thank you, Uncle." He said, and he really meant it. He took the object that Iroh held out to him. "What's this?"

"A gift." Jinora answered. "Go ahead, open it."

Zuko unwound the cloth to reveal a familiar pair of swords in a scabbard. "My dao blades?" He looked at Iroh in confusion.

"Draw the blades." Tenzin's eyes twinkled.

To Zuko's surprise, the twin blades had been altered, with an identical pattern of holes cut into the steel. And yet, the swords were still perfectly balanced. As he swung them gently through the night air, the blades produced a deep whistling sound, and he grinned. Zuko knew that it would not have been easy for a swordsmith to bore holes through a finished sword, let alone fix the balance of the blade and hilt as well. It truly was a mark of how much the Air Warriors honored him, that they would go to so much effort for him. "Thank you."

"Would we that you would never have occasion to use them." One of the High Council spoke. "But it is perilous times we live in, Avatar Zuko, and you will likely need them in the days to come."

A grave silence fell over the group, one that was broken by Rohan. "So, do I get two swords as well? Cause I'm just fine with one. Two feels like overcompensating."

Zuko couldn't help but laugh at his best friend. Perilous times indeed, but as long as he had these people on his side, he didn't mind facing the future so much.

A/N: So... it's been a while, huh? I stand by what I said in my last note though. Even if it takes another year to write the next chapter, I'm not abandoning this story. I'll finish this even if it takes years and no one is reading anymore. That being said, thanks to everyone who's stuck through thus far. If you can believe it, this is actually the last chapter of the first part of Avatar Zuko's story. Think of it like a season finale.

I know ATLA and LOK usually end their seasons with some final climatic battle, but admittedly, that doesn't make as much sense in the context of this story. After all, with the exception of Mai, Ty Lee, Iroh, and Zuko, no one from the Fire Nation is aware that the Air Warriors are living in Mt. Chomolungma. Yes, the war is still raging in the rest of the world, but so far our main cast hasn't seen much of it. Even Zuko, with all his angst about having to end the war as soon as possible doesn't know what that's really like.

That will change with the next part of the story. Zuko needs to continue his quest to master all four elements, and we need to meet some more familiar faces in this alternate universe. Y'all know who I'm talking about.