A/N: Hello new readers. I'm leaving this here to let any newcomers know that this story is currently being edited. I read back through it a few days ago and was appalled at the number of mistakes I made; some grammatical, the others inconstancy. So, as you read past chapter 1 please be aware that those mistakes will be fixed. I don't really have a beta for any of my stories so they normally get posted as is when the chapters are done. Please forgive any errors you find before the revision is finished, and hopefully you enjoy my take on Aang's story.

Vengeance, thy name is Aang

Ch.1- The Last Airbender

xXx

"Bending; the ability to manipulate the forces of nature by synchronizing one's chi with a chosen element. However, an individual's chi may only harmonize with a single element. These elements are: Earth, Fire, Water, and Air. The element a person can bend is dependent upon their ability to connect with that force; the element they understand.

A firebender connects with the raging heat of their element; the fury and power that fire represents. A waterbender, fire's natural opposite, connects with the calming steadiness of their element; the flexibility and grace water represents. An earthbender connects with the overbearing stubbornness of their element; the unflinching fortitude and strength of will that earth represents. And an airbender, earth's natural opposite, connects with the sensation of freedom that accompanies their element; the feeling of being unencumbered and without worry that air represents.

Each element is powerful in its own way, and have been used for centuries to aid mankind in building their world, but eventually there were some who forgot that it was the spirits and their chosen ones that gave the world bending. There were those who believed that they were the ultimate power, supreme over their own countrymen because of the element they wielded. It was because of this that the Four Great Nations were formed, and each bending element claimed a continent for their own.

But, with this division, came unity. The spirits of the world saw this gross miss-use of their gifts and made a move to correct the errors of mankind; they created the Avatar. A being who connected with not just one, but all of the elements and could bend them to their will. The Avatar was the beacon of hope that the world needed, the one who brought the world into a sense of peace through the knowledge given to them by the spirit world. The people of the world lived in a fragile harmony...and then the Avatar died.

News of their saviors death sent the people into a frenzy; each country blamed the other for the deed. None believed that a being so powerful could just die, so instead, whispers of assassination began to circulate. The spirits saw this and were ashamed; the people had not learned anything it seemed. And so they re-incarnated the Avatar, the super-powered being taking on a new form, but remaining the same. The people rejoiced, and the spirits knew that the Avatar would need to be recycled again once the current one died, each time as a member of one of the four continents; lest the world fall to chaos again.

And so it was for centuries; the Avatar was born, performed his duties around the world, and then when their time came they were re-incarnated. And the world went on in an calm state of peace...but then Fire Lord Sozin took the throne.

Sozin was a man that believed firebender's were the supreme race, and that all other forms of bending were second-rate. He believed that it was the Fire Nation's duty to unite the entire world under their banner and show the 'unrefined heathens' the light...by force if necessary. Unfortunately for Sozin, his friend Roku, who happened to be the current Avatar, did not agree with his ideals. This caused their friendship, which had stood for many years, to fall apart; Avatar Roku took it upon himself as the peace keeper of the world to stop Sozin.

But he failed.

In the end Roku was unable to strike down his oldest, and closest friend. Sozin did not share such compassion. The Fire Lord would later leave his former friend to die while his home was engulfed in a volcanic explosion. With Roku's death, Sozin knew that a new Avatar would be born and that the child would grow up and try to stop his plans. So, with the knowledge that the next Avatar would be an airbender, Sozin planned to invade the Air Temples with the help of a commit that would appear 12 years after the day Roku died.

With the aid of the commit, Sozin and his Fire Nation army laid siege to each of the air nomad's temples. The Fire Nation was ruthless in its assault, killing ever last airbender down to the women and children; not even baby's were safe from their wrath. Huge, black plumes of smoke lifted into the air as the temples were desecrated, the air filled with the stench of burning flesh and cries of the dying. Thousands of people died...but the Avatar was not among them.

Sozin had failed.

The Fire Lord spent the remainder of his life searching for the Avatar. An unshakable fear clung to the man during his final years, his fear that any day the Avatar could appear drove the aging man to push his plan forward at a drastic speed; he invaded the remaining continents. However, without the power of the commit, and the other kingdoms having knowledge of the attacks, Sozin's forces were held back. His dream of a world ruled by the Fire Nation would not come to pass during his life time, and he would fail in destroying the Avatar. And yet, even after Sozin's death, the Avatar never rose to defend the world from the Fire Nation.

For 100 years the Avatar vanished, and during that time the water tribes of the North and South poles were beaten back. The South Pole lost all of it's benders in a last ditch attempt to repel the Fire Nation, while the North Pole walled themselves in and have remained cut-off from much of the outside world. The Earth Kingdom has remained, just like its element, steadfast and strong; managing to stave off the invading Fire Nation and allow its citizens to live in relative peace. But all who lived through these times, and those that came after, began to lose hope.

Where was the Avatar...where was the last airbender?"

xXx

"How much longer are we gonna be out here, I wanna go back and practice my waterbending," a female voice echoed over the empty ocean. Among the numerous glaciers and fragments that floated in the sea, like ice in a drink, a single canoe sat alone.

It was occupied by two teenagers.

One was a male, the one being questioned. He wore a blue parka trimmed with white fur. His head was shaved along the sides, leaving the remainder in a form of mohawk that lead to a ponytail. He was dark-skinned and had piercing, blue eyes. In his gloved hand he held a spear as he attempted to skewer a fish. Not even bothering to turn around, the male said, "Oh c'mon Katara, you can play with your magic water any time. I, on the other hand, am trying to do something productive; catch us lunch."

"For the hundredth time, it's not magic Sokka, it's waterbending," replied the girl, now known as Katara. She too wore a bulky, blue parka. And she, like Sokka, was dark-skinned and had blue eyes. Her long, brown hair was pulled back into a bun with two loops framing her face. A face that was currently set in an annoyed glare.

"Bending, magic, same thing. Your moving water around without using a medium, and that's just not natural." Sokka explained. Then, turning his entire focus back to hunting, he attempted to spear a fish that happened to be swimming by. He missed.

"Gaahh, see what you did? Because you were distracting me I didn't have enough time to get ready, and the fish got away," the young man griped.

However, with his back turned to Katara, Sokka didn't see her eyes narrowing. He also didn't see as she motioned her arms, causing some of the water to lift into the air and float over above his head. But he did feel the cold sea water rain down and soak him.

Shaking his head, trying to dry himself off, Sokka gave up. "Alright, that's it, I'm taking you home. You can play in the water all day for all I care, but when I come back with a butt load of fish, I don't wanna hear anything about how hungry you are." The water tribesman said as he forcefully began to row the canoe.

Unfortunately Sokka didn't watch where he was going, and soon he was caught up in an isolated fast-break. The young teen did what he could to keep the canoe from crashing into the ice, but when he noticed his passenger not helping with his peripheral vision he yelled, "Any time you wanna give me a hand Katara that'd be great!"

Katara, hearing her brothers words, pulled herself together and grabbed the second oar. Now brother and sister battled together against the elements as their canoe sped across the sea. This went on for what seemed like hours, but was really only a few minutes, before the fast-break ended; being stopped by an abnormally large glacier.

Both water tribe members saw this, but try as they might the two teenagers could do nothing to move the canoe out of the way. The end result was their ride crashing headlong into the ice and sending them flying forward.

"Aaaaaah!" Katara screamed before she collided with the ground, her body rolling until it stopped next to the circular center of the iceberg. Sokka, on the other hand, simply crashed into the ground; his mouth filling with frozen slush.

Quickly picking himself up from the ground Sokka spat out the chunks of ice, and pointing an accusatory finger at Katara said, "See what you did? If you hadn't nagged me about your stupid magic water we wouldn't be in this mess, and now-"

"My fault!?" Katara cut him off, "I told you I didn't wanna go hunting in the first place, but nooo, you didn't want to go alone. Ha, Some warrior you are. Can't even catch fish by yourself."

"At least I'm trying to do something useful Katara; all that playing around isn't going to fill our stomachs, or prepare us for if the Fire Nation decides to attack again. Why don't you just grow up." Sokka spat, his words a mix of a shallow attempt to balm his wounded pride, and his true feelings.

But Katara, being just as angry, only heard insults. Trembling with anger she yelled, "Well I'm sorry that my only way to feel close to mom seems so childish to you Sokka, but it's all I have. And for the last time, it's not playing, it's waterbending!" With the end of her retort the teenage girl threw her arms back in a huff...and a pair of cracks raced along the ice, shooting up along the circular mass in the center.

The siblings turned and looked at the hunk of ice, fearful of what could happen should it break apart. When nothing seemed to happen they both let out huge sighs of relief. And then their ears were assaulted by a high-pitched whistle. Katara was knocked off her feet by a blast of steam that shot out from the cracks in the glacier, the young girl falling face-first into the cold ground.

Sokka meanwhile was still on his feet. The young warrior's wide eyes stared as the iceberg began to glow; a luminescent, blue light tinted the sphere, and then that same light became a pillar in the sky. To the Water Tribe boy, time seemed to stop.

Just as soon as it started the light show was over, and time began to move again. Katara pulled herself from the snowy ground surrounding the, now hollow, ice sphere and she too turned her attention towards it. A chill raced down her spine at what her eyes landed on.

A figure, shrouded in shadows, stood atop the edge of the glacier. From their build both Katara and her brother could tell it was a male, but what really scared them, was the fact that the figure's eyes were glowing. An ethereal blue, not unlike the color of the lights from before, seemed to fill the entirety of both sockets.

Katara and Sokka held their breath as the figure's arms twitched, as if he was about to raise them up and unleash some monstrous power, his body jolted...and then collapsed onto the ground. The figure's body then began a quick descent towards the pair at the bottom. Katara rushed to meet him there.

Once she made it there Katara knelt down and inspected the stranger. 'H-He's just a kid,' she thought as her surprised blue eyes swept over the youthful form before her.

He was definitely younger than her, if his short stature were any indication, and he had a boyish face to match. The kid was bald, but had a sky-blue arrow tattoo that she noticed went from his forehead towards the back of his neck; where it disappeared underneath his high-collard shirt. As she lifted him up out of the snow Katara was again surprised; this time by how light he was. The boy was wiry, and she noticed that his clothes were more than big enough for his svelte frame.

Speaking of clothes, Katara had never seen anyone that wore such an odd outfit...though being from the South Pole didn't give you many options in the way of clothes. But still, the boy's clothes were a mix of orange and yellow, colors largely uncommon around the world; even in the Fire Nation. But before the female waterbender could wonder about it any further, she heard a groan.

The kid was waking up.

"Psst, hey, Katara I really don't think it's a good idea to get too close to that guy; he could be dangerous." Sokka stage-whispered from behind.

Katara looked back and, moving so her brother could see the boy, said, "Does this kid look like he could hurt a fly Sokka?"

The elder sibling never got to answer, because just as he opened his mouth, a new voice groaned out, "W-Where am I?"

Immediately Katara's eyes turned back towards the boy in her arms. He was blinking his eyes, apparently trying to get used to the light. Katara noticed that the kid had gray eyes. They were squinted, and she leaned forward to help block the sun, then she answered, "You're at the South Pole."

It was faint, but the teenage girl saw a flicker of something pass through the young stranger's eyes. Then he spoke again, "Then I-I need to ask you something...please, come closer."

Katara did as he asked, inching forward so the kid didn't have to strain his voice. The whole time ignoring Sokka's overprotective, "Katara no!"

There were a number of questions the young waterbender was prepared for: "Where are my parents", "Who are you", "How far is it to-", "Can you help me". All these and more Katara was ready to answer, but as she finally got close enough, the strange young boy asked her something she didn't eve consider.

"Will you go penguin sledding with me?"

Katara choked on the breath she was holding, bringing one of her gloved hands up to cover her mouth. After her fit was over the young girl eyed the arrow-headed boy warily and said, "Um...sure?"

Then, the kid seemed to propel himself back onto his feet, his hand reaching up to scratch his bald head. As Katara rose to her own feet, she was stopped from asking any questions as the boy beat her to it. "So, how'd I get here?"

"Don't you think we should be asking you that?" Sokka questioned as he walked up, using his spear to poke at the younger male. "How did you get in that ice, and why aren't you frozen?"

The boy pushed the spear tip away, and answered, "I dunno-".

Anything else he may have said was cut-off by a loud, animalistic groan. The young stranger's eyes widened with glee as he swiftly made his way back up the way he fell. Katara and her brother chose to go around, and when they reached an opening they walked towards the center of the hollowed sphere. What they saw proved that their day was going to be full of surprises.

A large beast stood on six legs. It was huge, and hairy, with its entire body being covered in white fur. Though Katara noticed that a streak of brown ran across the animal's back, in the same arrow shape as the one atop the strange boy's head. 'Strange, those arrows must mean something if both the kid andhis pet have them.'

"What the heck is that thing?" Sokka questioned in disbelief. He'd never seen anything like it.

"This is Appa; my flying bison," was the younger boy's response. He mentioned that his companion could fly, like it was the most natural thing in the world.

But Sokka wasn't convinced, and in a sarcastic tone he said, "Riiight, and this is Katara, my flying sister."

If the kid heard the sarcasm in the Water Tribe boy's voice he didn't show it, instead, he simply asked, "So...do you guys live around here?"

As Katara opened her mouth to reply, she was once again stopped by her brother. The older boy flung his unarmed hand out in front of her, while pointing his spear at the stranger, and said, "Don't answer that. You didn't see the light in the sky, he was probably signaling the Fire Navy that patrols near here."

Katara looked over at the kid. He looked confused. The waterbender could tell that, even though she didn't see the light, there was no way it was a Fire Nation signal. Besides, this kid looked way too innocent to be mixed up with those monsters. So, pushing her older brother aside, Katara made her way over to the kid and said, "Ignore him; he's just my paranoid older brother Sokka. My name's Katara, what's yours?"

"Oh, I'm A..Aa..Achoooo." Both teens watched in amazement as the kid sneezed...and flew what looked to be at least fifteen feet into the air!

After a few seconds the kid came free falling back to earth, using the slope up the sphere as a slide, and then arcing up and landing on his feet. Sokka, the ever easily amazed, pointed towards the sky and muttered, "You just sneezed, and flew ten feet in the air."

The kid's face scrunched in confusion as he replied, "Really? It felt higher than that."

And then it all made sense. Katara's eyes widened in realization as the pieces began to fit together. The boy's strange clothes, the arrow on his head, the fact that he said his strange pet could fly and why he wasn't shocked at being able to fly higher than ten feet with a sneeze. This kid-

"You're an airbender." she said in amazement. Airbender's were supposed to be extinct!

xXx

A/N: Now it's time for an Avatar story. Unfortunately, with humor not being my strong point, I have to warn you that this probably won't be very funny. I can try, but that's the best I can promise, although the majority of this story is meant to be serious. Hence the name.

The first chapters will have Aang in a confused state, as I feel he should have been, but after his visit to the Southern Air Temple the story will take a turn away from canon. This story's Aang will take his duty as the Avatar seriously, and become significantly more powerful than the Aang from the show. He will also begin to hold a grudge against the Fire Nation; he'll fight it at first, but after learning a truth he will go after Ozai and Azula with everything he's got