Like the Roots Below the Trees

Posted originally on the Archive of Our Own at http://archiveofourown.org/works/48854128.

Rating: Mature
Archive Warning: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Fandom: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Relationships: Aang/Katara (Avatar), Sokka/Zuko (Avatar), Sokka/Suki (Avatar),
Sokka/Yue (Avatar), The Gaang & Zuko (Avatar), Aang & Toph Beifong
& Katara & Sokka & Suki & Zuko, Aang & The Gaang (Avatar), Mai/Ty
Lee (Avatar)
Characters: Aang (Avatar), Katara (Avatar), Sokka (Avatar), Toph Beifong, Suki
(Avatar), Zuko (Avatar), Iroh (Avatar), Azula (Avatar), Ozai (Avatar),
Raava (Avatar), Roku (Avatar), Kyoshi (Avatar)
Additional Tags: Alternate Timelines, tagging as I go along, Alternate Universe - Canon
Divergence, warnings at the beginning of each chapter
Language: English
Stats: Published: 2023-07-25 Words: 4,607 Chapters: 1/?
 Like the Roots Below the Trees
by Cryellow

Summary

After getting electrocuted by Azula's lightning in Ba Sing Se, Avatar Aang was forced to
reconnect with his past four lives in an attempt to save the Avatar state. While he didn't know
it, he was successful in doing so.
Now something else has threatened him, but for the life of him, he can't remember what it is.
Aang is met by the Avatar spirit Raava in his dreams, who tells him he must reconnect again-
this time with lives from other lifetimes entirely. As Aang traverses through these other
lifetimes, memories come to him briefly and with pain. He worries that he'll never connect
the way he needs to, and he may be living in alternate worlds for a long, long time...
Or
Avatar as a Multiverse of Possibilities and Aang has to learn how to survive in each one!

Notes

I need everyone to know the original title of this fic was Avatar into the Avatarverse and my
notes still hold that title and no I will not be changing it now that I have a very good and
strong title instead.
This is totally my excuse to take all the dumb lil AUs I could be making into full fics and
combine them into little ones that all connect. There is a strong possibility that if I like a 'life'
particularly I might write a full AU for it sometime later. One of these aus in particular I can't
wait to get to but the first few chapters of this are mostly going to explore Aang in just
slightly off worlds. I have no idea how many chapters this is going to be since I haven't really
planned it out, but I figure we'll just wing it as we go along. I'm not really going to have a
schedule for posting, but I will be letting people know on my tumblr, so be sure to follow that
if you don't!
I am going to be posting warnings for each chapter at the beginning, so make sure you keep
an eye out. At one point there will be a world with a major character death and I don't want
anyone to be surprised. There may be some graphic depictions of violence, but I haven't
really decided yet. Again, keep an eye out.

Warnings for this Chapter: None!

See the end of the work for more notes

“Aang.”

“Aang.”

“ Aang!”

Avatar Aang opened his eyes to a misty, shadowed plane. It was not unlike one he’d seen
before, whenever the memories of his past lives had come to him. Roku, specifically, had this
plane frequently. If he squinted, Aang could see the banister for the edge of the balcony
where they were in his mind- the Southern Air Temple. He assumed the purpose for bringing
these types of memories revolved around his Avatar-like sense of emotional stability. Taking
him to the Southern Air Temple calmed him. Being the Avatar meant that your emotions were
very apparent, even if you didn’t wish for them to be. The more he studied and learned about
Avatar Roku before him, the more he wondered how such an emotionally restricted man
could carry peace for the world. Aang always struggled with his emotions even when he was
pretending to keep them in check for others. It was often better to remain neutral, even if in
your head there is a raging war. The monks taught him many, many lessons- the greatest of
which being the need for outward focus. It isn’t about you. Sometimes he struggled the most
when it was.

Despite all of the people and past Avatars he could have seen, never in a million lifetimes
would Aang have expected to see… her.

“Aang, we do not have long to speak. The powers I have set in motion will not hold our
conversation for much further.”

Aang looked into the Avatar spirit- Raava. The turquoise markings that shaped her
completely white face seemed to move as she did. The round shapes around the diamond she
spoke from seemed to curl around her. He knew it was her face, but some part of him
couldn’t see it.

“Raava.”
“It is nice to properly meet you, Aang, but-”

A laugh bubbled bright in his chest and he released it with pleasure. “We have met so many
times before!”

She hesitated in front of him. Aang realized she was hovering only a few meters from him.
There was a power that surrounded her, waves of it flowing straight through Aang in a warm
blanket. A surge of energy. An overwhelming welcome.

Her hesitation almost seemed like an endearing look. He wondered if of their thousands of
lives, if she actually liked him. Perhaps.

“Of course I like you. You’re one of my favorites,” she said to him. Even his thoughts were
not free from her. He didn’t find this concerning. “You can’t tell the others, though. I think it
makes Yangchen very jealous.”

“I think that’s because the monks teach us that favoritism is not balance,” Aang said sagely.
He said his next words with a wide, shy smile. “But I won’t tell if you don’t.”

She laughed at this, more of a beautiful huff than anything with throat or heart. Perhaps
because she had neither.

He remembered a laugh with heart. A laugh that was full and made him feel warm.

A rumble sounded around them. Something flickered in the image in front of him. Aang got
confused and scared very quickly. Raava’s form turned sharply to him once more, reigning in
whatever lapses she had had in the joy they had shared between them.

“Aang, you must listen carefully.”

He focused dully on her. The images shifted again, a darker gray area forming the more and
more he looked.

“You must... See-”

See what? He asked in his mind his voice failed him. She answered him anyway.

“See with the eyes of others .”

Other people? Empathy was not hard for him. His capacity for love and his love for others is
what drove him, oftentimes to the Avatar state in distress.

~~~

“Others…”

“I’m confused,” Aang said aloud. “Please tell me what’s going on!”

“Aang! You haven’t been paying attention?”

He blinked his eyes several times, the room and the person talking to him coming into focus.
In front of him, Katara stood, giving him a disgruntled and frankly frustrated look. Her hands
were on her hips as she leaned over at him.

“Seriously, Airhead?” Sokka replied next to him, scoffing. “We’ve been talking for the last
half hour.”

Aang paled at this. It wasn’t his fault that Avatar stuff got in the way! Sometimes it sucked!
He’d just explain that he was talking to, well, the literal Avatar spirit and-
Sokka sighed and started talking, running him through whatever it was, again. He was
holding a red flier in his hand. “Okay so all you have to do is go to this Firebending
academy- we got you this flier and the money already- and you should be okay to register for
your first intermediate lesson. Remember, you can’t show them any other bending while
you’re in there, even if you really want to. It is imperative that you bend and act like a
firebender and only a firebender. The lessons should take you a few hours, but after they’re
done we’re going out to dinner!”

Sokka smiled brightly at him then, obviously hoping he understood the abridged version. It
was then that Aang noticed a few, crucial things. He was in a cave with a small fire and their
belongings strewn around it. Katara, Sokka, and Toph were all in Fire Nation red, sitting
around the fire like an intense conversation was happening (which Aang supposed there was).
He also rubbed a hand to his head and found he had a thick layer of black hair.

None of this was right. Well, arguably it was right in that he’d lived this before- he
remembered the cave and the clothes and his friends. He just had never had this conversation
with them. This was the moment when they worked out the details for their dance party for
the Fire Nation school kids. This was a long time ago.

“Firebending Academy,” Aang agreed sheepishly. “Right.”

“Hey,” Katara said gently, putting her hand on his shoulder reassuringly. “We all know that
Jeong Jeong taught you well and no one is trying to replace that for you. It’s just best that you
master fire bending before the Day of Black Sun.”

“Jeong Jeong? B-but I won't,” Aang replied. “I won’t- I don’t know it by then.”

At this, Katara became extremely perplexed and hesitated on his shoulder. Sokka waved his
hand at Aang in a dismissing manner. “Giving up isn’t really your style, Aang.”
A look of reassuring realization came over Katara’s beautiful features in front of him. Her
blue eyes lit up with the new understanding. “There’s no need to worry, Aang. You’ve been
practicing fire bending a really long time- almost as long as water- I’m sure their katas will
be easy to learn and apply. You totally got this.”

“Yeah, Twinkle Toes. You’ll kick their butts with your firepower.” Toph agreed from her
position sitting on a rock.

Aang took a moment to steady his breathing and look between them all. “What are you
talking about?”

“You! Going to the Academy! To learn Firebending! Spirits, why do I even bother,” Sokka
said, muttering and walking away.

“I mean I don’t use firebending,” Aang said, a slight tone to his voice. He wasn’t trying to get
angry, but none of this was making any sense to him. He didn’t know firebending! The only
time he had ever tried, he had burned Katara. That was the last time for him. He swore it off
for a long, long time. Until…

A memory tickled at him again. One where he was producing rainbow flames. Where he
stood next to another boy-

He got a very sharp headache throughout his skull, stopping his thoughts abruptly. It didn’t
matter. He knew he couldn’t firebend. He knew he (might?) learn it later.
“Woah, his heart rate’s off the charts,” Toph said worriedly. “No one’s forcing you to go,
Twinkle Toes. You said you wanted this.”

“I- I did?” He was still holding his head a little, wanting the pain to go away as much as
possible. Katara frowned at him.

“What’s going on with your head? Are you hurt?”

“I’m fine,” he gritted out. “Look it’s better if I show you. My inner flame died out after I
burned-”

Aang opened his palm and reached for (what he was sure) a dead inner flame. Instead, bright
orange fire licked at his fingertips at his command. Even though he knew in some part of him
that in the future he knew how to control it, in this moment he knew it wasn’t right. He let out
a squeak and extinguished the flame immediately, looking down at his hand with round eyes.

Sokka gave him an inquisitive look, really eyeing him up and down. “Did you hurt someone,
Aang? Or did you hit your head? I’m getting the feeling it’s the second thing.”

“N-no, I-” Aang struggled to form words that could actually pass his lips in a full sentence.
Suddenly, he felt a cooling sensation on the sides of his head. Katara stood over him, her
hands on either side of him, using her healing water.

Immediately his headache felt a little lighter like whatever had been stuck rock-bottom to the
base of his skull was suddenly floating on the river of Katara’s water. He gave an involuntary
sigh at this. Katara’s brows furrowed, concentrating and frowning.

“He’s got a concussion. Where did you get a concussion?”

Rock. Back. Head. Wall. His headache got worse and then better.
“I don’t know.”

“At school?”

“What?” Aang replied, confused.

“Did you get a concussion from school? I don’t think you should go there again.” Katara was
tight-lipped and still concentrating on the water around his skull.

He remembered where the cave was. Why they were wearing Fire Nation reds and golds. It
was familiar, if a little confusing.

He knew after the dance party that he wouldn’t be able to go back to school afterwards
anyway, but it still stung a little that Katara was trying to keep him from it.

He didn’t know how to ask what he wanted, which was “What do you mean I’ve been
firebending this entire time?” Or “Is this a joke?” But instead, Aang did his best to go along
with what they said. If some part of them thought he had been firebending almost as long as
waterbending, there were bound to be things that he could catch them on. While he couldn’t
explain how easy it was to pull from his inner fire, he could figure out a way to ask what he
needed to know. Because right now he felt like he knew nothing, like he was coming from the
iceberg again.

In his head, he reasoned that acting out of character wouldn’t be good for the team- not just
morale, which during this time had been historically low, but because they’d probably call
him crazy and lock him up in ice chains or something. And if he could pull fire, he had no
idea what his waterbending, which he had used as a much stronger crutch in its absence,
would be like.

So he went with the readily made excuses they were giving him.

“Maybe this was just leftover from that fight I had earlier…”
Katara’s frown deepened impossibly. Behind her, Sokka raised an eyebrow. He spoke up
before Katara could continue with her worried ministrations.

“I thought you told us he never laid a finger on you?”

Aang made a face. He hadn’t even touched the guy- it had all been his own fault- but despite
that, he needed to get past Toph’s lie detection or he’d be looking at the other end of Sokka’s
boomerang. Or a hospital ward.

He thought about his answer just a second too long, but he was sure it was a good one!
Everything would be fine!

“I didn’t touch him,” Aang agreed. Katara removed her hands from his head, the water
streaming out of him and back into her hidden pouch at her waist. “I’m not sure what
happened but I know I have a headache.”

That was vague enough, right? Sounded pretty good to him!

His gray eyes flew to Toph, but she had no reaction besides the concerned eyebrows she had
been wearing earlier.

“Maybe you should stay home instead of the academy then…” Katara murmured, voice
trailing off in thought.

While Aang knew it was wrong and knew deep down that he shouldn’t know firebending, he
also knew that to them he knew it, and fairly well. “No! I want to go!”

Sokka threw up his hands. “Well if someone makes up their mind, tell me!”
“I want to go,” he said firmly.

Reluctantly, the three let him go. Convincing them that he was alright and he didn’t even
have a headache anymore , thank you Katara, was a bit of work but in the end, he succeeded.
They knew he would have just flown off and done it anyway if he really wanted. It was more
about saving face than his abilities.

30 minutes later and after a rough climb up a mountain, Aang was at the foot of a set of long
narrow red stairs and a gated entrance. At the door, he was treated with a sharp, older woman
with long dark hair who looked down at him with distaste. She took his flier and his money
and gestured for him to come inside.

“Because you are to be placed in the intermediate lessons, I will first need a demonstration of
your basic abilities.”

On any other day, Aang would have considered this a reasonable request. The stranger in
front of him definitely had no idea about how well he could bend based on looks. It was safe
to assume he should have to express his current skill level.

But Aang didn’t even know his own skill level, let alone be able to demonstrate it. He had no
idea where to start. He stretched and scratched at his brain for a memory.

His muscles moved on their own. Once he got into the first position, the rest of them flowed
easily. He knew it had a name- knew it meant something very special to him- but for now, his
muscles moved gracefully around in low and high alternating poses, his fingers dancing with
flames that flew from him and soared in the air around him. He expected them to be rainbow
and shining flames- what he had instead was his bright yellow that surrounded him like
ribbons. When he was done, his shoulders leaning to one side and fists tight in the air, he felt
the emptiness beside him. It wasn’t right. Something was missing.

“I see you have a lot of work to do,” the female instructor chided him. “Your arms are much
too loose and there isn’t the force that we usually see. In addition, that is an extremely
unusual kata to demonstrate. I have no idea where you learned it. And yet…”
She glanced at him sharply, a single thin pointed eyebrow raised. “I can feel the heat of your
flame and the strength of it. It is interesting to see such power in such an underdeveloped
student.”

She sighed, exasperated. Obviously coming to a conclusion. “It is our duty to the Fire Lord to
make sure all firebenders know the proper ways of our nation. Come in.”

“Did I pass the intermediate?” Aang hesitated after righting himself. He desperately wanted
to know what she thought of his skill.

She snorted at this but corrected herself like such a thing was undisciplined. “If not for your
poor kata work, I would say you are ready for Advanced. But based on the fact you know
little of those, we will focus on the intermediate level rather than basic. I notice that you have
excellent breath support- this is a crucial task that is mainly focused on at the lower level.”

Aang accepted this analysis and bowed low with the sign of the flame. “Thank you.”

She seemed pleased that even if he didn’t know katas, he certainly knew how to treat his
elders. “You may be one of the younger ones in this group, so be warned.”

“I will do my best.”

Later, when he was finally alone after the four-hour lesson (which exhausted him), and a
large meal of mushroom stew from a wayward vendor with the others, he was sitting
comfortably with his back to the others in the cave, looking out at the water, sand, and
mysterious birds that liked this part of the island.

He sat meditating, his hands folded under himself and his fists together, eyes closed.
Comfortably away from the others, he let his voice ring soft and true towards the waves.

“Avatar Spirit Raava…I call on you.”

He waited.

And waited.

And nothing. He opened an eye to look around, hoping he’d be on the misty balcony. He was
not. His chest was sweating lightly where he had taken off his shirt from the dull heat. The
sand dug into his legs and bare feet.

He took a deep breath and closed his eyes once more. “Okay. Maybe that’s too direct. Avatar
Roku. I could use your guidance.”

He waited a much shorter time- every time he had called Roku it got easier and easier to
speak with him. This time, however, he heard and felt nothing.

“Kyoshi?” he tried, a little nervous now. Roku was the best one to try with- this was getting
into dangerous territory. “Kuruk? Yangchen? Uhh…”

He scrunched his forehead as best he could, trying to remember any other Avatars that might
talk to him. “Szeto? Salai ?”

With desperation, he opened his eyes once more to nothing but a wet sandy beach and a few
toucan-puffins that squawked at him. “ Please . I need your help. I’m not supposed to be
here. This is wrong.”

The silence that followed left him empty, but he couldn’t stop himself from wanting to say it
out loud, just in case any of the Avatars were listening but didn’t care to step in.

“We should be halfway to Jang Hui by now. The village…” his headache, which he’d mostly
gotten rid of earlier, came back with a dull pain. “It probably still has the factory.”
He gasped against the pain but kept going anyway. Somehow it made him feel a little better
to voice his thoughts out loud. “I’m not supposed to be firebending. I don't- I can’t. I mean, I
think later I do. I think this is my past- or, a version of my past- but I can’t figure it out. It
still feels wrong to firebend now. Because I still hurt Katara and I-”

He grasped in the air for something, anything. “If in my future I can firebend, why does it
feel wrong to do it in my past? How do I know that was my future? What’s going on?”

There was the crunch of sand behind him and Aang shot up like a cannon, turning. It was
Katara, her hair undone as she started to get ready for bed. “Hey, Aang. You’ve been out here
a while and I was getting worried…”

She looked him up and down and seemed not to put away that worry. He couldn’t blame her.
He ran a hand through his hair nervously and tried not to openly cringe as his headache
pounded in his skull. Katara spoke before he could. “Were you… talking to someone?”

Aang winced. “Sometimes I call on my past lives when I’m struggling.”

Katara’s face got soft at this, the side of her mouth pulling tight. “I’ve seen you do some
beautiful firebending, Aang. I’m sure this academy is going to help you learn.”

“Uh,” he hesitated a second too long. He seriously doubted that. He had spent half the time
doing something called “hot squats” and the other half maintaining a flame in his hand. Both
of these were relatively easy tasks, yet dragged on for the full four hours. His need for help
had nothing to do with his training, though, but he couldn’t outright tell Katara that. “Yeah, I
guess.”

He sighed and sat back down, facing the waves. He wasn’t trying to dismiss Katara, but he
couldn’t bare to look her in the eye and lie to her face. He just wasn’t like that.

She didn’t take it as a dismissal though, coming instead to stand and then sit next to him. He
put his knees to his chest, folding his arms over them and burying his chin.
As the waves crested and fell, they both were silent for a bit, relaxing in the peace. This was
one of his favorite things about Katara. Sometimes she pushed and sometimes she pulled
herself, like the waves, trying to know when to let others do the thinking and talking for
themselves.

Spirits, he was in love with her. The feeling of lips, soft and warm, and the taste of sea salt
came to him for a brief unbidden moment.

His head gave a painful throb and he hissed. Katara looked over at him, her hands
immediately going to her pouch. “Can I…?”

He nodded to her unspoken question, hoping she could relieve at least some of what he was
feeling. When she put the water to his head and hit the spot just right, he sighed contently.

He knew she was concentrating, but Aang couldn’t stop himself. “What would we do without
your healing water?”

She chuckled at this, hands around his head, touching extremely lightly. “Probably die. Most
likely die.”

“You’ve done a lot of work since accidentally healing burning hands,” he smiled warmly.

The full memory swam in front of him. He hadn’t realized that he had been reaching for a
fuzzy memory before this- but suddenly it was clear like crystal waters. He remembered
playing with the leaf in his hand, urging it to become a flame. He remembered how excited
he was at holding the little heartbeat in his hand and throwing it around. His inner fire had
been so strong and proud, then. And just as quickly as he had made the fire, the fire got out of
control. It expanded into a long, circular wave that knocked Katara, who had been close,
backward, her hands burned by his flames. The same dread and guilt that flooded his veins
then overwhelmed him now. He grunted against the memory as Sokka attacked him, yelling
about hurting his sister- like Aang didn’t care about her, or love her. Like it wasn’t his
greatest mistake.
“What are you talking about?” Katara said to him now, laughing in a bemused sort of way. “I
didn’t heal any burning hands in Master Yagoda’s hut. It was mostly just hunting wounds.”

His memory shattered on impact at her words. He jerked forward out of her grip, the water
falling onto his shoulder like rain.

“What?”

“I said I never healed any burning hands-”

“You never…”

And even though Aang wasn’t intelligent like Sokka, even if he wasn’t good at putting
together the pieces, he understood what felt so off about his life.

It isn’t that it wasn’t his- he knew it wasn’t. He wasn’t sure what was going on in his life, but
he knew for a fact it wasn’t this.

Here, in this life, at this moment, he had never burned Katara. He probably studied with
Jeong Jeong, if only briefly, and worked on his firebending mastery before he even went to
the North Pole. Firebending was probably one of his stronger elements next to air. Which
meant-

“I’m a fully realized Avatar right now,” he said in disbelief. Just to test his theory, he bended
a very small amount of air, water, earth, and fire into a rotating circle almost like he was
going to ride an air scooter. His eyes grew wide as he looked down at it, his heart beating
fast.

“What? I don’t know about fully realized,” Katara scoffed. “Your water bending needs a lot
of work. What does that have to do with-”
And she noticed the look on his face. Maybe the wonder or the disbelief or even the
confusion. “Aang, what’s wrong? Are you not feeling well? Did you- did you lose your
memories?”

“I-” Aang dropped the element ball like it had burned him (it didn’t) and it evaporated into
nothingness, the tiny rocks scattering to the sand. For one panicked moment, he thought
about telling her the truth. About telling her about Raava and about his headaches at his own
memories and about him being from the future, if only mentally, and how everything about
this was wrong.

But he didn’t think she’d be able to help him. This was something he had to do on his own.
Telling her about it would only make her more worried and perhaps scared that their Avatar
had completely lost his marbles.

“I think my concussion just has me a little confused,” he spoke carefully. “I’m not sure but I
thought you mentioned healing hands. My mistake.”

He continued, trying to convince Katara away from the look of unbridled concern. “I think
part of it is that I’m just overwhelmed learning firebending from firebenders. The way they
use it just feels… wrong to me somehow.”

Even though he was leaving out the biggest and most important parts, he wasn’t actually
lying to Katara. He had a feeling whatever firebending he learned in the future, it was a very
different type. This satisfied her if only a little. Her posture relaxed from the tight ball she
had been only minutes before and used a hand to bend the water off of his shoulders and back
into her pouch.

“You know we don’t have to stay here. You can continue learning firebending from someone
else.”

He hesitated, really thinking about this offer. Perhaps it would send them to Jang Hui, where
they were supposed to go. Maybe he’d run into his real teacher if he could remember their
face.
He tried his hardest to think about what he would do- an Aang who had months to work on
firebending and waterbending together, who had teachers in both but only for a brief period.
An Aang that was planning for the Day of Black Sun. (Something filled him with dread over
this.) No matter how badly the Aang with some future memories wanted to leave- he knew
that he couldn’t.

“I’ll give it one more try tomorrow. If it still feels wrong then…” Aang said hesitantly,
looking to see how Katara would take that.

She seemed satisfied like this was in character. “Then we’ll leave. You might not even need
to learn it ‘properly’ for the Eclipse. You can still face the Firelord. Even a mostly realized
Avatar would be strong enough to beat him.”

A flash of memory. Fire. A lot of it. A face- familiar and wrong in the same breath. Covering
his face with his hands. All the air he could muster in one big shield.

Aang gasped and screamed, his head reaching excruciating levels of pain. He stood up,
clutching his head. He stepped backward away from Katara- he didn’t want her to get hurt if
he went into the Avatar state in his distress-in his pain-

He heard her call out to him, rushing to his aid anyway-

With one backward step, he was falling back into the sand, legs giving out, clutching his head
still.

As one of the tiny rocks he had been bending earlier lodged itself in his spine, on his very
fresh scar, he blacked out.
End Notes

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