Chapter Text
By now you should expect crazy things to happen if you were the team Avatar, but by far this is the most bizarre and crazy one.
But you may be wondering, how did this happen?
Well let me tell you!
since the war had ended a few years ago things have died down by a lot, no more helping people within the nations, no more helping rebuilding towns and cities, and recently the thing that kept us busy has now finished,
Republic city!
But since that finished a year ago, we have nothing to do but just settle down and do what we want with our free time,
Zuko doing whatever he does as Firelord,
Toph has started a police force in Republic city and has become the first chief,
Katara has helped shape the world (with the help of everybody) as well as help people setting in Republic City, and now is just settling in,
Aang just doing whatever the avatar does, with all the spooky spirit stuff to just flying on Appa.
And me, the most important member and the most handsome one, and really I haven't been doing much after finishing building the city, but i am trying to become an ambassador of the southern water tribe, and it's not because I wanted to be closer to Zuko, totally not!
Anyway back to the main point!
so one day Aang had one of those spirit emergencies in one of the towns in the earth kingdom, you know average day as the Avatar.
and Aang decided to invite everyone to come with him since it's been a while since everybody saw each other because we are all soooo busy with stuff, especially me!
but now you've caught up to where i am and everybody else in this whole spirit nonsense adventure, i guess you'll have to wait and see on how everything goes.
*a few days ago*
it was just a normal day for the Avatar.
it was peaceful just flying around on Appa, exploring places and just taking in the world around him.
as Aang was flying over this cross section of 2 different lands, ones dry, empty, sandy and lacks of life and the other colourfull, full of trees covering for miles upon miles of land and can barely see the ground below.
these 2 lands looked like it was split in half.
Aang continued to fly across these 2 lands until he sees something in the dry deserted part of land and can faintly hear a voice shouting across desert.
Aang quickly landed Appa and closely to the person, who he can now clearly hear this person shouting his name.
" Avatar Aang! Avatar Aang! please come help us!" a man says while running up to Aang, clearly out of breath.
Aang quickly got off of Appa and turned to the man running towards him.
the man finally caught up to Aang, he stopped and puts his hands on his knees and was trying to catch his breath.
as the man slowly recovered he began talking.
"Avatar please you need to help our village" taking another breath,
"There is this spirit who wont leave!"
"spirit? What kind of spirit?" Aang says slightly confused and also concerned.
"i don't know exactly what happened but from what i was told, there are people who would go missing for hours inside the forest over there" the man pointed to the forest to his right and then looked back at Aang.
"The towns chief decided to send a search party to look for these people, and when they did find them they were dead"
"but here's the strange thing, there were no signs of struggle or any brutal stab wound or anything!" the man said panickly.
"it was like the souls of the people detached from their bodies"
now Aang is even more concerned than before.
"are you sure they didn't just go into the spiritual world?" Aang says.
"That's what we thought too but it's strange that they would go to one specific spot" he said.
"and its not just one person its multiple"
"mmm" Aang thought for a moment, 'it was strange how these people would go to a specific spot, maybe it is a well known spot to the spirit world and these people did go there to move on from this world'
"do you know where the spot was?" Aang suddenly asked.
"not specifically all i know it's in the forest over there" again pointing at the forest.
"alright, do you mind if you show me where your town is?" Aang says.
"Yes absolutely! follow me" the man began to walk but suddenly stops when Aang stops him.
"wait!!" he shouts.
"hop on Appa instead! it'll be quicker than walking plus you were running not too long ago so you must be tired and i assume the town is a bit far from where we are" Aang said with a smile.
"alright" the man said thankfully.
the man climbed up Appa into the saddle, and Aang airbent on top of Appa's head.
"Appa yip yip!"
the sudden movement made the man behind him cling on the saddle tightly as Appa slowly ascends up towards the sky, and starting the journey towards the town.
as they began their journey to the town Aang suddenly began talking.
"hey i forgot to ask this but what is your name?" Aang said now looking towards the man.
"ahh so sorry how rude of me my name is Ziran"
"hi i'm Aang! well i guess you already know that" Aang says sheepishly.
"and this is Appa my flying bison !"
"It's an honour to meet you even tho it's not the way i would like to" he said frowning, eyes looking sad.
feeling his sadness Aang tried talking about other things to keep the journey more up beat and it worked Ziran would smile happily as he talked about his family and friends and also about the good memories he made adventuring when he was younger.
and eventually they made it to the small town.
the town looked empty but not empty as a deserted town, it was more like it was empty by the lack of people around, but as they got closer Aang could see more of the town, it wasn't a big town at all, i was quite small but it was big enough for them,
the house looked re-built and some looked brand new, there were obviously signs of life still living here but where are the people Aang thought as they began to land in the town.
they slide off appa and start walking towards a building, the building looks like the biggest in this small town, so this building seems to be the most important building like a community building or a town hall of some sort.
as they walk into the building, Aang finally notices where all of the people of the town went, inside this building seemingly waiting for him and Ziran to arrive,
they were all seated around a large circular table, this seems where all the important stuff happens like the counsellors or the towns meetings are held.
"ahh!! you've got him!" one of the elderly said.
"finally" another said.
"hello, I'm assuming you are all here for the mystery spirit problem?"
"yes we are, please have a seat" one person said pointing at an empty seat across the room.
Aang quickly sat in the seat slowly looking around the room, he noticed that there were a lot of elderly people here but also some young people as well, some with children and babies, as Aang continued to look around a loud voice suddenly appeared.
"so then, lets begin" a man said Aang assumes to be the chief.
"Yes let's, may i ask when all this stuff happened?" Aang asked.
"it was around a few weeks ago when one of our people left to go shopping"
"from what Ziran told me all this stuff that's happening is from the forest opposite this town?"
"yes it is, and it's strange because nobody goes through those forests, and we never notice that person going through the forest that day" one person said.
"mmmm… how many people have gone missing and how many were found in that forest?"
"were not really sure since there could be more people out there, but from what we have found there are more than 10 people"
"And they were all found in the same spot?" Aang asked.
"correct"
"mmm strange…" Aang pondered a bit.
"and were all these people went into the forest alone?"
"we think so yes" one person said.
"one last question, to the people who went and found these bodies where were they located at in the forest??"
"in the middle of the forest, you'll know if it is the middle because there is this area where there are no trees which go in a circular motion" one of the people from the search party said.
"thank you so much for the information! i will help you with this, but is it alright if i leave for a while and come back? i will need help from a few friends with this" Aang said cheerly at the mention of his friends.
"Yes absolutely, we'll also make sure that nobody goes into the forest in the mean time" the chief said.
everybody started to stand up and leave the building, most people went into their homes while ziren and the chief walked with Aang towards appa.
"I'll be back probably within a day or two, and don't worry we'll get this whole spirit problem solved before you know it"
"thank you so much for helping us, we'll be waiting for you in the mean time" the chief said.
Aang airbent up to appa's head and sat down.
"I'll be going now, goodbye!!" he waved at them.
"appa yip yip"
appa ascended into the air and quickly began its journey back home.
from a distance Aang could see republic city getting closer and closer and as Aang got closer he quickly quided appa to his home and landed appa in the back garden.
Aang swiftly got off appa and gave appa a quick pet and some food before he goes into his home.
as he opens the door Aang was greeted by Momo who flew onto his shoulder.
"hey buddy, thanks for looking after the house for me" Aang smiled and gave some fruit to Momo as he walked to his study and began looking for some papers.
when Aang found the paper he sat down on his desk and began writing letters to each of his friends telling them to come to Republic City immediately.
as he finishes writing each letter he quickly went to get the messenger birds which were designated for each of his friends.
Aang wrapped the letters around each bird's foot and brought the birds to the balcony to send them away to their destination.
a few hours went by before the first person came, which was katara.
"Aang i came as fast as i could, what is the emergency?" Katara said worriedly as she hugged Aang.
Aang returned the hug, squeezing slightly, giving a few kisses as well.
"i'll tell you everything when everybody arrives"
they broke apart from the hug and Aang puts his hands on Kataras waist.
"anyway how is the water tribe doing??" Aang said happily.
"It's doing great! my dad is planning on retiring soon and is looking for the next chief"
"i thought Sokka wanted to be chief??"
"i thought so too until dad said Sokka wanted to be the ambassador"
"but i think i know why he wants to be ambassador" Katara said smirkingly.
"but i also think he'll do great as an ambassador anyway its more fitting for him" she shrugged.
"yee he'll do great!!" he smiled.
a few more hours passed as they talked and everybody began to arrive slowly.
"Aang how many times do i have to tell you not to call me sifu hotman in the letters you send me" Zuko said as he walked into the home, he being the last one to arrive.
"sorry sifu hotman" Aang smiled widely.
zuko sighed and sat down.
"right twinkle toes lets get to the point" Toph said while putting her feet up on the table and arms crossed seemingly bored.
"yes right the emergency!" Aang then began telling the story.
"so i was just flying about on appa when i saw this man who was running towards me so i landed appa on the ground and waited for the man"
"as he arrived he told me there was this spirit problem in a forest near the town he was living in"
then Aang continued to explain the rest of the story on what happened as he got to the town.
when Aang finishes explaining what happened Sokka began talking.
"so let me get this straight, you want us to go to this spirit place where they have been taking people supposedly to the spirit world" Sokka asked.
"yes!" Aang said grinning.
"are you aware this could happen to any of us if we went there"
"I'm too young to die Aang!! too young!!" Sokka said throwing his hands up panickly.
"i am aware, but don't worry! i won't let it happen to any of you"
"so when do we leave?" Zuko said ignoring Sokka's panic.
"right now"
they all got up from their seats and made their way to appa and and began there journey to the town.
They have been flying for a few hours now and the sun is beginning to set, and as it was beginning to turn nightfall they could see glimps of lights up ahead.
"there it is!!" Aang shouted waking up everybody not long after they began dosing off.
Aang quickly quided Appa towards the town and landed right in the centre of it.
Appa then made a loud growl possibly waking up the entire town.
people started to come out of their homes to see what the sound was most people look terrified only peaking throught the slit of the door or windows but quickly relaxed and soon after they went back in their homes.
the only people who actually came out was the man who Aang met a couple hours ago Ziran, as well as a couple of elderly people from the meeting they had and lastly the chief.
the Gaang quickly got off Appa and started to walk to the people.
"It's good to see you back Avatar" the chief said with a small tired smile.
"i'm sorry it took us a while to get here, it was a long journey" Aang said scratching his head and smiled.
"you all must be tired from that journey, please let us get you a place to stay for the night" an elderly woman said with a gentle soft smile.
"that would be great thank you" katara said.
"and some food please I'm starving!" Sokka said drooling slightly at the thought of food.
"Sokka be nice!" Katara sighed disappointedly.
"you're always hungry" Toph said but was interrupted by her stomach growling.
"you say something Toph" Sokka smuggly said.
"i never said I wasn't hungry, all i said was that you were always hungry" she smirked.
Sokka scoffed offendedly and before he got anything to say back he was interrupted by Katara.
"alright alright enough you too" she said obviously tired and done with those too.
"Let's just follow these kind people to where we were staying tonight"
"Yes let's, my back is starting to hurt for that journey" Zuko said grumply as he puts his hand on his back and begun messaging it.
"that just means you're getting old" Sokka laughs.
"shut up" Zuko said irritably and began following the elderly woman to where they were staying for the night.
"hey Sokka didn't you complain that your back was aching too not long ago" Toph said loudly while smirking.
"shut up that's different! i've been working my ass off in the workshop while hotman over there gets to sit down all day!" Sokka shouted earning a smack on the head and a glare by zuko as Sokka and Toph caught up with everybody.
in the front Katara sighed and apologised to the elderly woman but the elderly woman didn't seem to mind at all,
not long after they finally arrived at the place they were going to stay at for the night.
the place was large but wasn't small but it was cozy, this house was only a one floored building and it was large enough for everyone to sleep in, there were a few bedrolls already prepared for them and low table for them to eat at.
"i'll be back in a few minutes to prepare your meal" the elderly woman said and left soon after.
once the door shut everybody then began to settle around the low table in the middle of the room and began planning.
"right so lets begin discussing the plans for tomorrow" Aang said looking a bit serious.
"i say we just fly Appa over the forest and find the weird circle where there are no trees and wait until this spirit comes and Aang does his cool avatar shit and where done! no more spirit" Sokka said looking proud while he talked, arms crossed, head held high and eyes closed while also smirking.
"we could do that! ooorrrr we could walk into the forest to our destination" Aang suggested smiling widely but the smile slowly fell into an embarrassing smile when he saw the look on everybody faces as he looked around the room.
"okay hear me out on this!" he said panickly while throwing his arms out in front of him.
"so here's what i think we should do, i think we should fly up on Appa to see exactly where this circle is in the forest and once we find it we then fly back and to the entrance of the forest and we walk in the direction the our destination" he pauses but then continues.
"the only reason I'm suggesting this is because i thought maybe we need to follow the path of the victims because there's a chance nothing will happen if we fly out on Appa, even tho i want to go on Appa" Aang mumbled the last bit whilst looking down.
"but there's also a chance there might be something in the forest that would lead us to the spirit" Aang finishes.
everybody thought for a moment, it would be nice to just fly on Appa but Aang was right there might be something inside the forest that made the victims to go to the spot.
"Aangs right we need to go inside the forest if we want to catch the spirit" Katara said looking serious.
"so then lets go in the forest" Toph said unbothered.
"i agree, even if it's dangerous it's our best option" Zuko said.
"even tho i like MY idea better i guess your right about the whole spiritlually thing inside the forest" Sokka sassily said.
"so then that's settled, we'll leave once the sun begins to rise tomorrow" Aang said ending the discussion.
as soon as they finished talking there was a knock at the door, Katara who was closest to the opened it revealing the elderly woman from a couple minutes ago who seemed to be holding a jug of water and some cups as well as a 4 young men who where holding food in both of each mens hands.
Katara opens the door widely and stepped aside for them to come inside and deliver the food and drinks, they then placed them on the low table that they were sitting next to and the 4 men bowed and began to leave leaving the elderly woman behind.
"i hope this is enough for you for tonight" she said with a soft kind smile.
"It's plenty enough thank you so much" Katara smiled wide.
"then i best be on my way then, good luck for tomorrow and be safe" she smiled once more and began walking towards the door and left.
once the door was closed Katara then turned back to the table to see everybody (minus Zuko) scoffing down the food.
"really?" Katara said looking done with them, but sighed and began sitting down and started eating too.
"man this is so delicious" Sokka hummed looking satisfied while with his mouth full.
"this is what i need" Toph agreed aslo with her mouth full.
"seriously that's disgusting finish eating before talking" Zuko said while looking at them disgustingly.
"and slow down your going to choke" he said but as soon as Zuko said that Sokka started choking.
Zuko sighed but started pounding on Sokkas back until he collected himself.
Zuko looked at Sokka smuggly and said "told you"
"shut up" Sokka said grumply arms crossed.
after everybody was finished with the food, they decided to chill and talk for a while until they got tired and decided to head to bed.
and just like Aang said they were up just as the sun peaked across the horizon,
they quickly pack all of their belongings as well as some food and water for the long trip and began walking out of the building they were staying at.
as they were leaving the building they were greeted by the town chief who stood near the town exit and seemingly waiting for them to arrive, he stood tall but there were a hint of concern in his posture.
as the Gaang arrived at the exit where the chief stood and Appa laid they began to feel this unease feeling as they got closer and closer.
they stopped near the chief but they kept looking at the forest, there was this strange sort of pulling in their chest as if it was trying to direct them into the forest but they were quickly turned away by the chiefs voice.
"you feel it to don't you" he said with a sort of pained looking face.
he sighed then turned towards the forest with a distant look "ever since you got here we notice this pain every time we got closer to it"
he looks back at them "everybody's been too scared to get any closer and nobody wants to leave either"
he then smiled a little but still looked sad "i'm glad you're here to fix this"
he sighed once more and said "i will not hold you for any longer than it needs to be, please be safe everyone" and just like that he turns and begins to walk away back into the town.
after watching him go they turned back to the forest, they were silent for a while, looking into the forest, it was dark, even when the sun is out it was dark.
they sit in silence for a couple more seconds until Sokka breaks it.
"well i guess we should start then" looking grim but started to make his way to Appa.
"yes let's" Zuko said giving the forest one last look before joining Sokka.
Toph followed them as well but said nothing.
Katara began walking towards Appa as well but pauses and looks behind her to see Aang still staring at the Forest it was like he was disconnected to the world a similar experience with the swamp.
Katara makes her way back to Aang, and as she got to him she gently touches his arm.
"Aang come on we got to hurry" her voice and touch startled Aang out of the daydream and looked at her and smiled apologetically "sorry, yes lets go" still looking out of it he gave the forest another look and quickly began making his way to Appa.
Katara gave him a look of concern as he speed walked away and she then also walked towards them.
once everybody was on Appa they began their journey over the endless forest to find the centre.
"Appa yip yip" Aang said beginning their journey.
they were flying over the forest for a while now, all they could see for miles upon miles was the top of the tree which were making this sort of roof for the ground underneath it.
they were going in different directions hoping to find the centre of the strange circle in the centre of this forest, while doing so Sokka was trying to make a map of the forest as well as mapping out the directions they where going in.
but still there were no signs of this circle.
they were starting to lose hope on finding the circle, the sun was at its peak of the day and they still haven't found it.
they change direction again heading even more inland than they already where hoping this was the right direction.
everybody was tired and bored and getting slightly irritated, they were almost out of food and water already (no thanks to Sokka who he said was stress eating)
but then, as Zuko looked to his right he spotted something strange, he squinted slightly and moved slightly closer leaning over the saddle, there was this area where there were no trees no leaves to put a roof over the ground, it wasn't a large area where it can easily be spotted but it wasn't small either, it was also in a shape of a circle.
Zuko squinted again to make sure he was seeing it correctly and then he shouted excitedly "there!! i see it!!" pointing in the direction of the circle.
everybody (minus Toph) scrambled to Zukos side of the saddle and looked in the direction he was pointing at.
The tension they were feeling earlier was gone and was replaced with a relieved and hopeful feeling.
"we finally wound it, i cant believe it" katara said with a relived tone.
"ye thats great and all but can we hurry up and finish this already" Toph grumpily said looking bored.
Sokka scrambled back to the middle of the saddle and pulled his map back open and began mapping out the circle in the forest "Aang i need you to fly Appa back to the town so i can put down the directions to the circle"
"on it!" he said jumping back on Appa head and turned around.
it took them a while to get back to town but they made it in time just under an hour or 2.
Appa landed just outside the town seemingly tired from their journey above the forest.
they climbed off Appa and took their stuff off with them "alight buddy it looks like you wont be able to come with us for this point it looks like its a tight squeez in there but don't worry well be back before you know it" Aang smiled at Appa and giving his head a good pat and giving him some food as well.
"right i have finished mapping out the forest and the direction we need to go in, so from here on its nothing but smooth sailing" Sokka said holding the map in front of him and then pulling it down to look at the forest.
once again they were feeling this pull in their chest, they were silent once more looking at the forest ahead of them.
"right lets get this over with" Zuko said under his breath but it was loud enough for them to hear.
they began to walk slowly towards the forest but stopping in front of the entrance.
"are you sure you want to do this? i mean it isn't too late to fly over it" Sokka looked at Aang.
"yes i'm sure" he signed "we need to do this even if we don't want to" he said and began walking in the others followed him silently, and soon enough there was darkness.
there wasn't light, there wasn't sound coming from anywhere, they all stopped moving.
"Zuko lets firebend some light" Aang said as fire hovered ove his hand Zuko doing the same.
they looked around, there wasn't anything weird or strange as they looked around just normal looking trees, as they looked more they noticed there wasn't really a clear path anywhere, they began to wonder how these people who went missing got through here.
after looking around they began to look at each other giving worried and concerned looks towards each other.
"lets stick together we don't want anyone to get lost in here" Katara said.
"we should hold on to each other" Zuko agreed "its safer that way anyway"
they began to form a line of some sort gripping each other hands or arms.
Aang being in front, Katara holding Aangs hand tightly, Toph between Katara and Sokka and Zuko in the Back holding Sokkas hand.
"Is everybody ready?" they all nodded "lets go then" Aang sighed looking forwards into the darkness and began walking deeper into the forest.
time went on as they continued walking and as they got deeper and deeper in the forest strange and creepy things began to happen, there were quiet whispers coming from all angles but there where no audible words to be heard from the whispers.
the whisper sounds as if it got closer to them and louder as they continued walking and singular words where beginning to form "come closer", "over here" the whispers repeated over and over and getting louder and closer.
shivers went down everyone's spines but they didn't pause to look around or to follow the whispers commands they just continued walking but more quickly to get away.
but that didnt seem to help them, it got worse, there were more whispers that seemed to be overlapping each other getting louder and more closer again from every angle around them.
they speed up into a faster pace but not running, they looked around them, it was dark and the only source of light was the fire Aang and Zuko were producing but they could only see so much as the light from the fire weren't strong and bright enough for them to see far.
they couldn't see anything or anyone other than themselves as they looked around.
the whispers kept coming, more and more voices kept coming, the words now almost impossible to understand, but some were getting even louder, not even a whisper anymore and more of a shout "follow", "come here", "help us", "i need you" where repeated.
and then every thing when quiet within a second.
they stopped walking, they began looking around them but nothing where to be seen.
"that was creepy" Sokka broke the silence, everyone hummed in agreement still looking around but with more caution.
then suddenly everything went black around them, their fire was gone, the trees that were around them were gone, the ground was gone as if everything had disappeared around them.
but they weren't unconscious, they were still holding onto each other as they didn't let go of each other at all so where did everything go?
Aang and Zuko tried bending the fire back but there was nothing, no flame, no spark suddenly there was this bright light flashing them everyone quickly shut their eyes from the sudden light that appeared and slowly opening them to adjust their surrounding.
they noticed that they were floating in the air in an endless abyss of darkness that was being broken by the light in front of them.
they looked towards the light and noticed it was a person, or something shaped like a person, they looked more and began to realise this strange person was extremely large like a giant, a giant women to be exact.
there were no facial features, no clothes, just an outline of a body, and the 'hair' was flowing upwards like fire would.
they finally realised that this being was a spirit, and it seemed to be quite a powerful spirit as well.
everyone seemed to be frozen in place unable to move or talk, whether it was them being scared or the spirit making them unable to move they didn't find out because as they where frozen the spirit moved it hand over them and everything went white.
and then everything went dark and they lost consciousness.