Could it be? The Alone Trilogy back from the dead? It is! Bam! I am reediting the story, fixing the plot holes and discrepancies and editing errors, because wow, fifteen year old me sucked. I am changing some major things, such as Zia no longer has her master tattoos, and she is actually from the Eastern Air Temple. Her friendship with Aang is a little more unsteady because of this. I'm looking to update about once a week, maybe twice, depending on my schedule. I'm writing a lot of different things, and I'm desperately trying to cling onto so degree of self worth and to keep my depression at bay. I'm posting this again because I realized the people that had me take it down have little claim, especially since the majority of the story is original. And their original DMs don't exist anymore, not that I can see, and I actually read all the terms & guidelines all the way through. Anyway, here we are, back again. Happy 15th anniversary ATLA.

Disclaimer: I own no rights to Avatar the Last Airbender and I'm just here to share some stories.

I watch as Aang takes flight on his flying bison, Appa. Why is he leaving at a time like this? It's storming, and hard. I grab my staff and jump out my window, hoping to catch up to him. I yell, "Aang!" but my voice is carried off into the blowing wind. Where is he going? It's nearly midnight, the storm is raging past, and he dares to take Appa out in this weather? Does he have a death wish?

I try to yell again, but proceed with the same luck. The wind is snapping at my glider, making it creak back and forth in the chilling rain. I have to catch up with him before I'm taken away by the wind. "Aang!" I yell at the top of my lungs, hoping he would at least hear a vowel of my plea.

His head snaps back, looking for the faint sound he heard moments ago. "Aang!" I yell again.

"Zia?" he yells, his voice barely carried in the rain. "Zia! What are you doing?" Aang brings back the reins of Appa, slowing him down, trying to turn around to catch me.

Appa flies under me; Aang holds a helping hand up to me. "Grab my hand, Zia! Before you're swept into the wind!" Aang yells to be heard over the roaring wind and. . . is that the ocean I see under me?

I slowly take a hand away from the staff, losing my balance and falling, barely hanging onto the staff and missing Aang's hand by an inch. The staff snaps closed, bringing the air into the empty space the wings once belonged to. I fall faster than before, the ghost of a scream on my lips. "Zia!" Aang yells as I fall to the sea below. Far below. "Appa! Yip yip!" I hear Aang yell, bringing him into a steep nose dive.

Why did I follow Aang?I ask myself. If I didn't I would be in my bed right now, safe and sound. Not asleep, but safe.

"Zia!" Aang's voice comes directly above me. Quickly, the bald boy wraps the leather straps of Appa's reins around his feet and jumps, arms outstretched. He grabs a hold of my left arm, the one not holding onto the staff, and pulls up.

"Don't let go!" he says, pulling me up. "Appa!" The flying bison pulls quickly up, missing the water by a meter. My long brown hair clings to my wet, shaved forehead where my own airbending tattoos will go.

"What were you doing, Zia?" Aang's face looks over mine. He was the only one who really talked to the visiting female monks from the Eastern Air Temple. It helped that he was funny, and friendly, and greeted me as if I had lived with him my whole life.

Then he stopped showing up for the lessons even when I showed up. That was odd for him, but then he earned his tattoos around his tenth birthday. He had mastered airbending, and all the young monks were in awe, even my masters from the Eastern Temple.

I watched as he slowly stopped showing up at all to the co-ed lessons. One day, he was called to talk to the monks, saying something about being the Avatar. I never listened to the gossip the other students spread so I dismissed it all. Because, if Aang really was the Avatar, he would tell me. Or, that's what I thought.

"Following you," I answer. "Why did you leave?

"Because . . . because I couldn't handle it anymore."

"Handle wha-" I'm interrupted by Appa falling suddenly in the water, overtaken by the crashing of waves and salt getting in my mouth. He tries to come back up, but we're dragged farther into the water. Aang's hand tries to reach for mine, but is lost to the sea. I can see Aang's bald head move up and down in the water, and yell, "Aang?"

No answer as I'm dragged into the water and unable to get back up. A light flashes and I'm encased by a world of air. Everything stops, my vision blanks and all is gone.

My world appears cold as an ice shattering sound envelopes my ears. From my position on the inside of the ice, everything looks murky, as if I'm swimming in a dirty pond of water. It takes me too long to get my bearings, to figure out what's happening. Where am I? Where's Aang? is all I'm able to think. I'm laying in a pile of snow on the other side of a bank of snow, where I can hear voices coming from that seem to be arguing.

"Katara! Stop! It could be Fire Nation!" a voice yells.

"Sokka! Stop. He needs help!"

"Aang?" I whisper, because that's the last memory I have, of Aang falling into the water and reaching for me. No reply, my body shivers. That's when I notice I'm freezing cold in just my orange shawl over my yellow sleeved shirt and brown pants. The cool air rips at my skin causing me to shiver more.

"Look, Sokka! There's a boy up there!"

"Katara! No!"

A blinding blue beam shoots up into the sky, and I cover my eyes from the blast. "That could have been a flare to nearby Fire Nation! Let's go!"

"And how would we do that? The canoe's gone."

There's silence for a few moments, and I shiver from behind a snow drift. Breaking the silence comes an all too familiar voice asking, "Will you come penguin sledding with me?"

A softer nicer voice, the one that was advocating for us, says, "Uh, sure. I guess."

I scramble up from the deep pile of snow, not wanting to be found for some reason, not knowing what lay over that mound of ice and snow that I saw Aang stagger down from. Aang starts to ask Appa if he's all right, two other figures scramble up the hill, dressed in cold weather clothing. They can't see me from my position mostly in the snow, too preoccupied with Aang and Appa and their conversation.

Appa growls, signifying that he's all right. Suddenly, Appa sneezes and I hear Aang yell, "Look out!" I watch as snot flies and hits the older boy. I stifle a laugh, as the boy is obviously disgusted by Appa's boogers.

An annoying voice yelps, "Eww! Ahh! Eww!"

Aang says to the voice, "Don't worry. It'll wash out. So, do you guys live around here?"

The voice that got covered in boogers says, "Don't answer that! Did you see that crazy bolt of light? He was probably trying to flare down the Fire Navy."

Fire Navy? What's that? I think to myself, leaning against the mountain of snow, still spying on the three. I know what the Fire Navy - I've been taught about other nation's war tactics. But why would they be here? We're not in a war?

The gentle girl that answered Aang's penguin sledding question says, sarcastically, "Oh, yeah, I'm sure he's a spy for the Fire Navy. You can tell by that evil look in his eye!"

There's silence for a moment until she continues, "The paranoid one is my brother, Sokka, and I'm Katara. You never told us your name."

"I'm- Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah-choo!" Aang sneezes, flying fifty feet in the air. I watch as he slowly descends. He doesn't seem to look worried for me, as if he forgot I followed him. He lands and says, "I'm Aang!"

Sokka says something about flying ten feet in the air, and Katara comes to the conclusion that Aang's an airbender. Sokka then says, "Weird beams of blue light, flying bison, airbenders. . . I think I got Midnight Sun Madness. I'm going home to where stuff makes sense."

There's a long silence until Aang says, "Well if you guys can't get back, Aapa and I can give you a lift."

Katara says something about loving to, and Sokka says, "Oh no! I'm not getting on that fluffy snot monster."

"Are you hoping that some other kind of monster will come along and give you a ride home? You know, before you freeze to death."

Sokka starts to say something but sighs and gets on Appa. I peek my head above the ice and snow to see if Aang remembers that he has a third would be passenger. He doesn't seem to notice I'm gone, he tells Katara and Sokka to hold on, and says, "Appa! Yip, yip!" I vaguely acknowledge the hurt in my chest and the fact that he left me, and watch.

Appa groans and flaps his tail, falling into the water. They leave me stranded. There's a trail of ice floating off in the direction they were headed. It might not be much but it is worth a chance. I jump from ice-pad to ice-pad, following the swimming Appa and toward Katara and Sokka's village. Hopefully, toward safety. I think about the hurt in my chest as I watch them disappear and wonder why it isn't bigger, more consuming.