Avatar: Invincible Sokka

"We should start preparing for the Southern Air Temple. I will grab some ingredients from this island so I can cook something when we arrive at the temple. Also, yeah, I will be the cook now."

Katara, without any hint of resistance, simply accepted.

"That is something that I would gladly pass to you, Mr. Warrior."

I didn't even try joking back since something caught my attention.

A black dot on the horizon that is getting bigger every moment.

Seeing me focused on a direction, Katara and Aang also looked at the approaching visitor who was still quite far from us.

I couldn't help but sigh.

This guy was starting to get annoying by pursuing us.

I accept that this was his job as a soldier of the Fire Nation, and that is to eliminate any threat that could potentially harm or destroy the plan of the Fire Nation to conquer the world.

No one is good at that other than the Avatar, at least from what I've heard.

However, being chased like this every day must stop before it continues and becomes a cycle of our group's life.

So the only option now is to cripple Zuko.

That's what I will do if I have enough power, but that isn't feasible for now since the combatants in that ship are too overwhelming even for me.

The old fat guy in that ship was also a concern for me.

My instincts just warned me that I should avoid direct confrontation with the old man for now since I sense that he was an experienced fighter and bender.

"Let's hurry and leave. That Zuko guy and his men are coming."

We calmly pack our things and put them on Appa's back.

However, I noticed how unfazed Katara has become, which is not entirely a surprise since she sees me beat Zuko, who we thought was the leader, easily.

I don't want to see her get confident like that. She was still weak, and having confidence in others, especially me, is not something I want her to have.

But for now, I will keep an eye on it and maybe fix it when it becomes a problem.

"Yip-yip!"

Thud--!!

With a slap on the ground using his massive tail, we ascend to the sky.

We fly through the clouds and without even knowing it, we arrive at the land where the Southern Air Temple was built.

"This land..."

This wasn't the land that Aang describes to be.

It was like a no-man's land since even a single presence of an animal was zero.

Trees were burned, and the temple looked ancient by now.

I expected this, but it was still tragic to see it in person.

Aang saddened as he said, "This isn't the Southern Air Temple I used to see. It was full of life with nomads playing around and living their lives. Animals like Appa and lemurs also thrived here. But now..."

It seemed that he couldn't say the rest due to sadness, which made me pat him on the back in pity.

"It's okay, Aang. We can still change many things. We can prevent others from experiencing this in the hands of the Fire Nation by getting stronger and slowly destroying their plans about conquering this world. And maybe, we can find other Air Nomads like you who were able to escape from the Fire Nation."

Aang's eyes shot up, and his emotions seemed to get better.

"Yes, you're right. There still must be Air Nomads like me in this world! Hopefully, I can find them so we can reestablish the Air Temples again."

"About the Air Ball... How do we play it?"

I looked down and observed the hundreds of poles below.

This matches the description of the play area where the Air Balls were being played.

It was built with many gaps in between, and the length of the poles was enough to get me injured if I fell from that high without doing anything to reduce fall impact.

This game was really built just for Air Benders...

But I will play it anyway since it looks fun and interesting.

Aang and I then face each other with grins on our faces.

Aang had the wooden ball in the first round since I want to see how this game works first.

The ball spins quite fast in Aang's hands, and he then continues to play around with it while not falling from the poles.

The wooden ball dances around Aang before he suddenly shot it towards another wooden pole, which bounces to another pole.

It bounces from a pole to another with high speed that my former self wouldn't even be able to follow it.

However, that's the past me.

My eyes followed the wooden ball's movements as it travels towards me at incredible speed.

I took a stance as the ball gets closer.

Tukkk!

I delivered a spinning kick towards the ball, which sent it back towards Aang with a speed far slower than when Aang sent it.

It was still fast nonetheless.

The ball bounced from pole to pole, which eventually led it back to Aang.

Aang seems surprised by my skill but recovered and quickly sent the ball back to me.

We exchange attacks, but there's no one winning.

Despite having the advantage over this game, Aang couldn't even get a point, since even sending a strong attack, I can deflect it easily.

But that is the same on me since Aang barely uses his Air Bending to grab the approaching ball.

I'm starting to get tired from the exchange of blows, so I just stood there, let the ball pass me, and made Aang score the first point.

I wanted Aang to win so we can stop playing, but I also don't want to make it look like I really lose.

If I only had unlimited stamina, then there would be no winners even if we played for days.

Katara just sighed in relief that the game finally ended and spoke.

"I thought that I was about to stand here till night just to watch the two of you kick a ball."

"Haha, that's what I thought as well."

I laughed as I jumped from the poles and began my fast descent.

Aang has long been on the ground as he waits for me with a wide smile on his face.

"That was fun, Sokka! You're the only person at my age to have lasted that long on a game with me! I didn't take this as a win this time since you seem really tired, so I hope we can play this again..."

"Sure, Aang. I had fun as well."

I tried to hide it, but it was getting painful now.

I didn't stop the game just because I was tired.

My hands and feet were also swelling after deflecting a ball made from wood and traveling at me at high speed many times.

"Now that you two are done with your games, let's go to the air temple right away!"

Katara and Aang were walking towards the temple, but I didn't immediately follow.

'This is...'

A helmet with a mask was on the ground, buried in the snow. I could instantly identify that this was from the Fire Nation since I've seen them multiple times in my life, one came another just recently.

"Hey Sokka, what are you looking at there?"

I wasn't able to sense Aang's presence, but when I did, he was already there. His atmosphere immediately changed from happy to cold when he saw the Fire Nation helmet on the ground.

I don't know what to do in this situation, so I just stood there silently. It's always Katara's job to comfort someone back in our camp.

After Katara talked and comforted Aang, we were headed again towards the temple with an unusual gloomy energy around us, well, specifically around Aang. He was walking with us but had his head down while walking. I don't know how he feels, but I feel that something bad is going to happen if Aang's emotions get pushed around too much, after all, he was still the Avatar.

Despite the lonely vibe this temple has, it still had some of its beauty from its past self. The simple and calming design of the temple doesn't fade even after the cracks on the wall from the fightings.

Like what Aang said to me, this place was perfect for Air Nomads, and I know now that is 100% true.

We arrived inside the temple. Despite Aang's gloomy expression, he couldn't hide his pride about his home as he explained to us the details around the temple.

"This is where the Bison live and where we and Appa played around usually. This is Monk Gyatso, the person who taught me everything about Air Bending and is like a father to me. But I know that he was not in this world anymore..."

His little happiness was short-lived as he reminisced about the past. But that didn't stop him from further explaining things about the temple as we continued to explore it. I occasionally asked questions that I was curious about so Aang could forget what happened earlier.

As we continued to explore, I noticed a white animal moving around us, peeking whether it thought that no one would notice it. Too bad, I managed to see it.

"Aang, Katara, I will leave for now to see something else. Explore the temple together for now, I will join once I'm done."

"Hm. Alright, be careful."

Katara doesn't seem to mind it so I just turned around quietly. The 'thing' seemed to notice me approaching, causing it to make a weird sound before running away.

I didn't immediately run to follow it, instead, I walked like I didn't see it.

From what I've observed, this thing was a small animal with large ears, a wing, and a tail. It was quite agile and quiet when it moved around.

I became excited since it's my first time seeing an animal like this.

When I was finally away from Katara and Aang, I started running towards it, which caused it to panic. It quickly jumped and flapped its wings to fly, but I managed to grab its tail due to my fast footwork.

The animal panicked even more at my hands, which caused me to release it so it doesn't get violent.

"Calm down, buddy, I won't hurt you."

I know it doesn't understand me, so I emphasize my intention by raising my hands to show that I don't have any items that could hurt it.

The animal seemed to calm down but it was not enough to make it trust me instantly. It just quickly ran away, and I just followed it without aggressiveness.

It soon entered a room covered in black cover.

"This is... It's base?"

I also entered inside, but I was more cautious this time. I was ready to pull any of my hidden weapons as I began observing the room. My serious face earlier was immediately replaced by a shock.

What inside this room was a bunch of corpses of the Fire Nation soldiers, but sometimes even more surprising was the single Air Nomad that wore all the items of Monk Gyatso. It looked like he fought them all and managed to kill them by himself, but with the cost of his life.

'This would be really, really bad if Aang saw this...'

I didn't even bother with the white animal who was standing on top of Monk Gyatso's head as I approached the remains. This was against my morals, but I removed his clothes and accessories from his skeleton and hid it under the corpse of the Fire Nation soldiers, just in case.

"I'm sorry for this, but this is for your student. I hope you understand."

With that, my focus was back on the white animal. However, unlike before, it didn't panic but just looked at me with a puzzled face.

I approached and grabbed it, but there's no resistance whatsoever.

"I don't know why or how, but you're one of our friends now."

I placed it on my shoulder to test if it will fly away. If it leaves, then it's our fate to part ways here, but if it stays, then I will happily take care of it. The animal moves, but instead of flying away, it just moves to my head.

"Haha, looks like you agree then. I will name you after I introduce you with others."

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A/N: All things on the original timeline are now changed with Sokka hiding Monk Gyatso's remains. Aang won't be enraged and go into his avatar state due to too much emotional push since he didn't see what Sokka did. In the original timeline, due to Aang's avatar state, all the temples that were built for the Avatar, all lit up, causing the world to know that the Avatar has returned.

Another one from the original timeline was, when Aang really got captured, he escaped but managed to damage Zuko's ship, prompting Zuko to fix it at the harbor where Zhao and his fleet stand by. Initially, Zuko didn't tell Zhao about Aang's return since he doesn't want competition on the hunt for the Avatar, but Zhao managed to get that information from Zuko's officers. But since Sokka managed to repel Zuko after being the winner of their battle, Zuko didn't manage to capture the avatar and intern didn't get his ship damaged.

Because of this, the information about the avatar return is delayed.

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