Nodding at Tong's words, I took a moment to close my eyes as I thought about the options to choose from since I hadn't come unprepared; I knew I would be required to share my knowledge with Tong if I wished to use his library. Thanks to my wealth of knowledge about this world from the show, I knew a few things that I was confident that not even Tong knew, but I started off with pieces of information I was unsure about.
"Fire Lord Sozin betrayed my past incarnation, Avatar Roku, and left him to die on his home Island." Said Aang lightly as he clasped his hands while looking up at Tong, who faintly nodded.
"Yes, I've known for some years; a terrible ending for your previous self." Stated Tong softly with a faint look of pity as he gazed at Aang, who nodded before furrowing his brows.
I wasn't expecting him to know that, but at the same, I wasn't surprised either; still, if he knew that, then I'm almost certain he knows this as well.
"There still exits one last Lion Turtle known as the Ancient One." Said Aang, though just as he envisioned, Tong didn't seem surprised and merely nodded his head.
"Even if you're the Avatar, I'm surprised you know such information." Commented Tong as he gently flapped his wings while eyeing Aang.
Inwardly shaking my head at such an obvious answer, I continued to sort through the few ideas I had, and although I was somewhat reluctant to reveal such information if it meant I could prevent the extinction of us Air Nomad, it was well worth it; however, just as I opened my mouth, I was suddenly struck with such a brilliant Idea I nearly wanted to slap myself at how foolish I was to overlook it.
'Haa, I'm foolish. Tong doesn't care about whether the information is important or not; he just wants to know something he doesn't.' Mused Aang with a faint smile as he lightly shook his head, causing Tong to slightly tilt his head in confusion.
Outstretching my hand towards Tong, I faced my palm upwards, and through intense focus, I began collecting an absurd amount of wind within my palm, creating a small vortex that sucked up all the surrounding air; however, it eventually reached a point where I couldn't force anymore air into the dense sphere of wind within my hand. So, I began to rotate it rapidly, and while I didn't know the physics behind how it worked, it allowed me to squeeze more air into the rotating ball without it growing in size, which was what I wanted in the first place.
After a few moments, I stopped adding more air, causing the surroundings to calm down, as I looked up at Tong, who had been staring at my hand in fascination.
"I should've asked this before I did this, but do you have a plank I could possibly use to demonstrate?" Asked Aang with a focused expression as he glanced at Tong, who nodded before raising his head and cawing, his voice echoing through the massive library.
A few seconds later, a fox came running right toward us with a plank in its mouth before setting it down on the ground beside me, prompting me to nod as a thank you gesture; reaching down, I grabbed the plank and held it right before the highly dense spinning ball of air, which was decently loud given its size.
Without further ado, I brought my hand toward the plank, and with next to no resistance, the wind ball in my hand ate right through the plank as if it didn't even exist, taking Tong by surprise given his widened eyes. Once the plank no longer existed, I dispelled the raging ball of air within my hand, creating a mighty explosion of air that pushed me back while Tong's feathers were aggressively ruffled.
"It's a technique I've been secretly practicing; I have no official name since I don't plan to make this an official technique of the Air Nomads, but I suppose you can call it Rasen." Stated Aang lightly as he fixed his appearance while gazing at Tong, whose expression slowly returned to usual.
"Hmm, Rasen? That is only the third air bending technique meant to kill, and coincidentally, two were created by the Avatars." Remarked Tong lightly as he stood upright while eyeing Aang, who didn't seem the least bit pleased by his words.
"However, this knowledge will be more than enough to suffice." Added Tong with a nod as he suddenly turned around before walking away, leaving Aang alone.
Watching Tong leave, I couldn't help but just stand there as I sighed to myself; the only saving grace to showing Tong was that, given his view on humanity, I highly doubted he'd ever willingly tell anyone that technique; besides, only air-benders and the Avatar would ever be able to use it.
"Haa, still, I'm not proud of creating such a technique." Muttered Aang softly as he lowered his head in self-pity, only to take a deep breath before shaking his head.
While I disliked the idea of ever killing someone, I couldn't do nothing when I knew that a great war was just around the corner; I was by no means proud of my technique, and I had no intention of ever telling another person how to use it, this was something I would take with me to my grave. If and when it came down to it, even if I were to be labeled as an outcast among Air Nomads, I would use the technique; the Air Temples were my home, and although I don't interact with everyone much, that didn't mean I hated them or anything, far from it actually.
So, for the past two years, I've been preparing for the worst in case the war still happens, as I doubted I'd be able to talk Sozin out of invading the rest of the world.
"I'll speak with Sozin soon, but until then, let me visit the planetarium." Said Aang with a shake of his head as he began walking through the library, heading in the opposite direction of Tong.
Despite how tempting the hundreds of books were, I had come here with a goal, so despite giving the numerous bookshelves fleeting glances, I stayed focused and quickly searched through the several floors, which took a few hours; however, eventually, after opening several doors, I finally found the room I was looking for.
"Woah, so impressive." Muttered Aang in awe as he entered the large room with a dome ceiling, viewing the beautiful art on the ceiling that resembled the sky.
While I took in the incredible architectural design of the planetarium, which was actually called the Planetary Calendar Room, I was a little off, but to be fair, it's been years since I've watched the show.
'Okay, so if I'm not mistaken, this should all be rather simple to use.' Thought Aang lightly as he stood in the middle of the room while standing at the large jade dial with various symbols.
Observing the dial, I reached down and spun the outer circle, which represented the twelve months; then next was the smaller circle, representing the thirty days in every month, and the final circle only had ten symbols, though every twist would add one year to the dial, allowing whoever uses this to see an entire decade into the future, which was incredible in my opinion, but I only needed to see a year at most so I left that one alone.
Since I didn't know the exact date when the Fire Nation would attack, which was the entire reason I had come here in the first place, I picked tomorrow's date, causing the sun, moon, and stars up above to slightly shift, a change that was barely discernable, but seeing how there was no comet, I sighed in relief and chose the next day after tomorrow, which also happened to be comet free.
"Haa, I know no better option other than to just brute force my way through this; ohh, this is going to take some time." Muttered Aang softly with a sigh as he used the dial to go through every day of the year, a lengthy and tedious process.
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After over two hours of repeating the same actions, I removed my hands while fixedly gazing at the sky, staring at the fiery comet that finally appeared, causing me to frown at the ominous aura I felt from it. Shifting my focus back to the dial, I reached into my satchel and wrote the date down to ensure I wouldn't forget it, as this wasn't something I would trust with mental memory.
"Four months and 15 days until the Fire Nation attacks." Said Aang softly with a deep frown as he gazed at the paper in his hand before storing it in his satchel.
I had more time than I expected, which I was glad for since it gave me more time to prepare while also trying to prevent the war; though, I was skeptical about the second part. Sozin had been preparing this for decades, and I doubted a few months would be enough for me to stop him.
'Still, this is better than nothing.' Thought Aang with a solemn expression as he turned around and gazed at Tong, who was staring at the sky.
"What is this about the Fire Nation Attacking?" Asked Tong curiously with a frown as he gazed at Aang, who changed the dial back to today's date, causing the entire sky to change while the comet disappeared.
"On the day of the Great Comet, the Fire Nation led by Fire Lord Sozin will invade the Air Temples with the intention of wiping every single one of us out, all to kill me. I intend to save my people." Replied Aang firmly as he glanced at Tong before walking past him and exiting the room, though his words only served to further invoke his curiosity.