The Altered History Sora opened his eyes with agonizing slowness.
His blurred vision gradually focused, taking in Aang and his sky bison, alongside two tan-skinned teens.
He recognized them instantly from his past life’s memories: Katara, the waterbender, and her eccentric brother, Sokka.
The reality settled in.
He had been locked away in cryogenic stasis with Aang for an entire century, and they had only just awakened.
As Sora took a deep breath, testing his muscles, a jarring sensation rippled through his veins.
His body was overflowing with an absurd, almost volatile amount of energy, and his spiritual core felt as though it had vastly expanded.
What the hell is going on?
How did I acquire this much power?
he thought, his chest heaving.
Could it be because my soul was damaged when it first transmigrated into this world, and during those hundred years of hibernation, it fully healed and expanded by absorbing the ambient energy of the Avatar world?
Sora couldn’t form a definitive, logical explanation for this massive spiritual leap.
However, one thing was absolutely certain: implementing the deadly scientific concepts and anime techniques from his past life was going to be significantly easier now.
“Soraaaaa?!” Aang’s ecstatic, high-pitched shout snapped Sora back to reality.
Sora stared at the boy, his long-buried fury instantly boiling to the surface.
“Aang, you absolute idiot!” Sora roared, his voice cutting through the frosty air.
“Didn’t I explicitly tell you to stop freezing me?!
Why did you drag me down into the abyss with you, you bastard?!
You’re the one who crashed into me in the first place—!” Sora unleashed a relentless tirade on the young Avatar.
Sleeping for a century had never been part of his calculations.
His plan had been to travel the four nations, rapidly amplify his lethal strength, and return to the temple to orchestrate an evacuation so the Air Nomads wouldn’t face total annihilation.
But now, because of Aang’s reckless panic, Sora assumed that they were the only two airbenders left alive in the entire world.
“Damn it!” he cursed under his breath.
“I’m so sorry, Sora!” Aang stammered, his posture shrinking with genuine guilt and remorse.
“I didn’t know it was your voice in the storm…
I thought I was just hearing things!” Sora cut himself off, realizing it was pointless to argue.
Aang was still just a soft-hearted kid who wouldn’t intentionally hurt a fly.
Sora turned his sharp gaze toward the Southern Water Tribe siblings.
“I can’t believe it…
are you both actually airbenders?!” Katara gasped, her voice laced with intense excitement.
“This is amazing!
Airbenders have become so incredibly rare, and sightings are practically non-existent!” Sora stiffened, his eyes narrowing to slits as Katara’s words registered.
“What do you mean ‘rare’?” Sora demanded, stepping forward urgently.
“Are you saying there are other airbenders left in this world?!” “Yes!” Katara nodded quickly.
“Several families managed to flee the Fire Nation before the temples were completely wiped out.
They went into hiding across the world afterward, though no one has seen an airbender surface in the last twenty years.” Sora stood frozen, a profound shock rattling his core.
The history of the Avatar world…
changed?
Did my technical manual, or my warnings to Gyatso about the Fire Nation’s imminent invasion, actually make an impact?
Did Gyatso and some of the other elders actually take precautions and smuggle people out before the slaughter?
Sora’s mind buzzed with a chaotic storm of theories and calculations regarding what had truly transpired over the last hundred years.
“A hundred years?!” Aang interjected, his eyes wide with utter bewilderment.
“Sora, are you saying we’ve been asleep for a hundred years?!” “Yes,” Sora stated flatly.
“But…
how could you possibly know that?!” Aang questioned, completely lost.
“Because I just know.
Got it?” “No, I don’t get it at all!” Aang replied.
“It doesn’t matter if you get it or not.
You’re an idiot anyway,” Sora countered dismissively.
Aang shot an embarrassed, pleading look at Sora, lowering his voice as he tried to salvage his reputation in front of Katara.
“Come on, Sora, can you keep your voice down a bit?
Don’t say things like that out loud.” “Of course, you absolute idiot of an Avatar,” Sora yelled even louder, ensuring his voice carried perfectly over to Katara and Sokka.
“Haha!
My friend…
he just loves to joke around!
Haha!” Aang laughed nervously, sweating under the pressure.
Katara blinked, her jaw dropping.
“Wait…
did you just say you’re the Avatar?!” “Uh…
yeah, I guess so,” Aang muttered, rubbing the back of his neck.
He had never wanted that title; it was the exact responsibility he had been running away from in the first place.
“Katara, let’s just leave them,” Sokka intervened, stepping forward with a scowl.
“It’s obvious these two are nothing but bad news.” Sokka marched ahead a few paces, only to freeze dead in his tracks.
He stared at the shattered remnants of their canoe.
Right.
Their boat was completely destroyed.
Sora ignored the bickering siblings and walked over to Inma.
As he approached, the massive flying bison opened her eyes, letting out a joyful rumble before aggressively licking his face.
Sora leaped gracefully onto her saddle.
“If you three don’t feel like freezing to death on this ice shelf, I suggest we move,” Sora called out.
“Inma, yip-yip!” Inma slid forcefully into the icy water, instantly breaking into a powerful swim.
“Hey, guys!
Climb onto Appa, he’ll give you a ride!” Aang yelled to Katara and Sokka.
Katara eagerly climbed into Appa’s massive saddle, while Sokka followed, grumbling under his breath and thoroughly displeased by the arrangement.
Both beasts navigated the icy waters, setting their course toward the Southern Water Tribe village.
Taking to the Skies As they traveled through the frozen waters, Aang passed the time by sharing stories of his past.
“Aang,” Katara asked, gesturing toward the beast swimming ahead of them.
“Who exactly is Sora?
The airbender with you?” “Oh, you mean Sora?” Aang’s eyes lit up.
“Sora is the absolute strongest airbender at the temple.
Honestly, I don’t even know how he got caught in the storm with me, or how he ended up asleep for a hundred years, but I guess it was just destiny.” “The strongest airbender?!” Katara murmured, her eyes wide with awe as she watched the figure riding ahead.
Up on Inma’s back, Sora sat in deep concentration.
He patted her thick fur.
“Inma, I’m going to lift us out of the water.
I want you to take flight the moment we clear the surface.
Got it?” Hiss-hush!
Inma snarled playfully, a wild, predatory rumble vibrating in her chest.
Sora swept his arms upward, instantly seizing control of the surrounding air currents.
A violent localized gale erupted around Inma, generating massive upward thrust that effortlessly hoisted her colossal weight out of the ocean.
Once airborne, Inma caught the slipstream, her wings taking over the heavy lifting.
Her muscles had been stiff from a century of sleep, but the sudden air assist kicked her instincts back into gear.
Sora soared high into the sky, looking down at the massive icebergs and jagged, fractured ice sheets scattered across the endless blue ocean.
“Look!
Look, Sora is flying!!” Katara screamed, pointing up at Inma as she cut through the clouds.
“Wow…
that is absolutely insane,” Sokka muttered, his voice dripping with pure envy.
He fiercely wished he had a massive beast of his own.
Inspired, Aang urged his own bison.
“Appa, yip-yip!” Appa made a desperate attempt to leap out of the water, but each time his massive paws left the surface, he belly-flopped heavily back onto the waves, unable to sustain the momentum.
“Appa, yip-yip!
Come on, buddy, you can do it!” Aang pleaded, trying again.
Sora looked down from his high altitude, watching Aang’s failed attempts.
“Aang!
Use your airbending to create an upward launch beneath him first!
Once he’s in the air, his muscles will remember what to do!” Sora shouted down.
“Great idea, Sora!” Aang yelled back.
Aang planted his feet, channeling a massive vortex of air directly beneath Appa.
Veins bulged on Aang’s forehead as he strained against the weight, forcing the massive sky bison completely off the ocean’s surface.
“Appa, yip-yip!” With the initial air-blast breaking the water’s drag, Appa caught a massive thermal current and surged violently into the sky, soaring alongside Inma.
“Woohoohooooooo!” Katara and Sokka cheered, screaming with absolute exhilaration as the wind whipped past their faces.