Chapter 5: Talk (Betaed)

They all were sitting inside the old tent that Michael claimed as his own and sipping tea. It wasn't the best that Aang tasted, but still good. Michael had finished his cup some time ago and was poking the fire with a stick. Suddenly curious, Aang tilted his head. "How did you end up here?"

Michael chewed his lip thoughtfully. "I'm not sure. I just closed my eyes and when I opened them again, I was here. And it was a little difficult to get down without becoming a bloody blob on the ground." He said and not a single word of it was false. "So, I just decided to stay put and train my bending in peace without worrying about other people. If someone had noticed that I was using Airbending, then I would certainly have been beheaded on the spot."

Sokka rolled his eyes and snorted, throwing his arms behind his head and leaning back against the wall. "You're not that good, pal. Take advice from the comedy genius – a good joke needs to be funny."

Michael flicked his wrist and a sudden gust of wind blew Sokka off his place. He landed upside down and then fell.

Everyone stared at Michael.

Katara was thinking furiously. Gran-gran always said that the only person who could control more than one element was the Avatar. And Aang was the Avatar, Katara was sure! This must be some kind of trick. Sokka was right, this guy was shady.

While she was thinking, Sokka was trying to get up. His feet shook slightly and his knees wobbled. He managed to sit up and just blinked for several minutes. Aang suddenly grinned and pumped his fist up. "Woohoo!" He jumped a good two meters into the air and then rushed to hug Michael. "I'm not the last one!?"

Sokka finally got over his shock. He pointed an accusing finger at Michael. "That's cheating!"

Michael dramatically put his hand to his chest and widened his eyes. "Who? Me? I have no idea what you're talking about." He said and shrugged Aang off.

Sokka's eye twitched. For some reason it made Michael smile even broader.

Aang swirled around and grabbed Katara's hand, bringing her closer to Michael. "Can you teach us Waterbending? If you can, then we can stay here and not go to the North Pole. That'll save us a lot of time!"

Sighing heavily, Michael pushed Aang away, hard. He yelped from surprise and let go of Katara's hand. The wind carried him away a little, before he rolled over and landed on his feet, giggling. Michael sighed again and rubbed his forehead.

"First, I'm not made to teach." He started. "Second, my style is way too different from the ones you lot are used to."

Katara tilted her head. "What do you mean?"

Michael clicked his tongue. "Well, for starters, I don't use any movement in my Bending, I just command my Chi and it obeys. Not sure why it works, or how, but it does." He shrugged. The snow behind him rose and fell in tune with his movements. "Well, alright, I don't need a lot of movement, even the slightest twitch can do the trick."

"Wow, that means you have a monstrous amount of Chi within you..." Aang muttered, eyes wide.

That made Michael pause. He knew that he could theoretically look at the state of his Chi with the help of meditation - fanfics taught him that much - but no matter how much he tried, he couldn't see it. He could feel some energy inside of him and command its flow, but he couldn't measure it.

"Sure, let's stick with that for the time being. Still, I'm a shit teacher. My favorite teaching method is to beat the life out of my students until they understand their mistakes." He pretended not to notice their alarmed glances. "And anyway, I can't teach you my style, so you'll need to find someone else."

Katara looked unconvinced, and a little skeptical. But Aang practically lit up with happiness. If Michael couldn't train them, then he surely should help them find someone who would.

Yes, Aang was a hopeless optimist.

At the same time, Michael was still deep in his thoughts. He tried to recall facts that he knew about the series. 'What happened after the visit to the Temple? Kyoshi island? Hmm, if I kill that huge-ass serpent, no one will mind, right? Damn, now I wonder what it tastes like... will it be offensive if I cut out a chunk?'

"Mick, you're drooling." Aang noticed helpfully. Michael just wiped his mouth and shrugged unapologetically.

"My bad. Haven't eaten anything that didn't have feathers or leaves in half a year." He explained. "How Momo can live off just some fruits is a fucking mystery to me. Maybe he eats bugs in secret?" Momo squeaked from somewhere on top of the tent but didn't show himself.

They fell silent for a while. Aang was throwing looks at the huge doors nearby, clearly thinking about something. He took a deep breath and pointed at them. "Master Gyatso once told me that behind those doors I will find someone who can help me." He bit his lip. "But there were only statues and I recognized only Avatar Roku. How can a statue help me?"

Michael chose his next words carefully; he couldn't just tell him everything he needed to know to defeat Ozai. No, Avatar had to go a long way to become the person he was at the end of the series and defeat his enemy. Of course, Michael wouldn't just leave him alone. He would simply make sure that this world received a better version of Avatar Aang. THE AVATAR ULTRA!

*Coff* *Coff*

Well, that was cringy, so he'd better forget it.

He returned his attention to Aang and shrugged. "Dunno, I'm not a God to know everything." He could almost hear the crickets. Almost. In what season did these creatures wake up at all? Spring? Maybe autumn?

"God...?" Sokka repeated, tasting an unfamiliar word.

Michael silently cursed himself for his slip and hurried to explain. "Ah, it's like a belief in Spirits. Many people believe that Spirits live in different places and protect them. Some even too aggressively. I believe in one creature that created absolutely everything in this world, from man to spirit. And this creature is commonly referred to as God. Well, that's it in a nutshell."

Michael did not know this, but at that moment he sowed the seeds of a new religion that wouldn't blossom very soon. Forty years? Yes, it would grow for about forty years before revealing it's beauty to the world.

"I find it hard to believe in Spirits, and your 'God' sounds even stranger than them," Sokka muttered as he hungrily devoured the meat Michael had given him.

"When will we leave this place?" Michael changed the subject abruptly. Aang shrugged one shoulder. "Appa is tired and needs rest. We'll fly tomorrow morning."

Michael slowly looked around, taking in the place that became his home for so long. "Last night at the Temple then." He hummed and his gaze turned mischievous. "Hey, Aang, wanna spar?"

That prompted Aang to grin and nod enthusiastically. He hasn't sparred with anyone in ages! Granted, he couldn't remember a second of that time, but it still counted! "Where are we going to fight?" He asked, almost bouncing with excitement.

Waving his hand dismissively, Michael stood up. "Old training columns," he paused and shrugged, "well, they're all old, but you know what I mean. It will be more interesting that way. Oh!" He exclaimed. "And don't use anything other than Airbending, so we can compare our skills."

Aang jumped on the spot and ran to the columns. In one leap, he hopped on one and glanced down at Michael expectantly. He didn't disappoint and also jumped on the nearest column.

Katara and Sokka sat down and got comfortable. They could tell that they were in for a great show. Hopefully no one would get injured.

Michael folded his arms over his chest, his staff hanging off his back. Right now, he was standing in the famous pose of one redhead Kazekage. Sure, it would have looked much cooler if he was an Earthbender, but unfortunately, he was not. 'Maybe I can learn to control other elements in the next worlds, who knows?' He mused, watching Aang closely.

After several minutes, Aang squatted down a bit and looked at Michael in confusion. He knew that after a hundred years some Bending styles could change a lot - especially Airbending. But he didn't expect Michael to be so... passive?

"Erm... On the count of three!" Sokka decided to chime in. "One... Two... Three!"

Aang immediately jumped to the side, dodging Michael's air blast, and sent an air sphere that was aimed at his opponent's legs in response. Michael simply waved his hand and the sphere changed its course and hit one of the adjacent columns. Aang decided to go offensive and rushed to Michael, trying to kick him in the shoulder. But he was stopped by a huge wall of compressed wind.

There was no time for him to dodge Michael's fist that hit him square in the chest, sending him flying. Aang managed to regain his footing, one hand cradling his ribs. He was breathing heavily, but it didn't diminish his excitement. He had finally found someone who was able to keep up with him!

Michael cracked his neck. A smirk appeared on his lips as he taunted Aang. "You're gonna just stand there, or are we gonna start fighting anytime soon?"

In response, Aang just grinned and started spinning in place, creating a small hurricane.

"That's more like it!" Michael laughed and reached out for his staff. He dashed to the side and the real battle began.

Aang threw air blades at him with the speed of a machine gun, but Michael always dodged at the last moment or stopped them with his staff. He focused on his feelings and suddenly the world became much brighter and seemed to be filled with information.

Jumping over a wave of wind, Michael decided to knock Aang off his hurricane. He sent his own blade of air in response to Aang's attack and jumped forward, instantly closing the distance between them.

Aang did not expect such a sharp transition from defense to attack and didn't even have time to understand how Michael crashed his body into his hurricane and forcibly stopped him.

"Wah-!" Aang turned in the air and managed to grab a pillar. He breathed a sigh of relief that he didn't fall to the ground, but then he abruptly heard stone grinding against stone. His world began to tilt and Aang abruptly realized that Michael had cut the column he was holding on to.

Pushing off from the falling stone and jumping between the columns, Aang tried to look around to see where Michael was, only to meet with a compressed ball of air. The ball hit him in the stomach and knocked all the air out of his lungs, but Aang took the opportunity by the throat and exhaled even harder, sending his body up.

Michael blinked, not thinking that he would have such a quick reaction. He noticed something flashing in Aang's eyes and suddenly the roles changed again. Aang took a deep breath, trying to ignore the pain in his ribs, and exhaled sharply, creating a stream of wind that knocked Michael off the column... along with the column.

His body was thrown backwards and Michael grimaced in pain, but he was able to recover in time to grab a crack in the stone column and lift himself up. Breathing heavily, he looked up at Aang and frowned.

"You know, I thought these pillars could withstand more than that."

Aang just shrugged his shoulders. "In my time, they didn't break down that often, but when they did, we just called an Earthbender to fix the damage."

It was safe to say that the training grounds did not survive their sparring.