Braya : The Lost Guardian

One Year Later

Drip.

Drip.

Drip.

Braya laid in her cell listening to the water from the ceiling hit the stone floor. She used to hate the noise that the water made, but now it was weird if she couldn't hear it. She thought about her life and what her future held for her. The conversation she had with Gang ran through her mind, "Braya, you are destined to destroy the Avatar, and bring the people of this world peace." The Avatar according to Gang, had been a major source of destruction for many years. Braya found it strange that she never heard of any chaos the Avatar caused, then again, she never heard anything at all. She was constantly confined to the bunker or her cell. She was not allowed to go outside and if she did, she got punished. If she asked too many questions, she got punished. She learned to just go about her day quietly, staying as much in the shadows as possible. She hadn't been asked to fight anyone for a while, so it was easy to stay out of everyone's way.

Gang had promised Braya that she could see her mother Chun, but still she was nowhere to be found. As Braya laid there she tried to picture what her mother looked like. She had no memories of anyone in her family, just a picture of a woman Gang told her was her mother. When she tried hard enough to picture her mother the same woman came to mind, however, it was not the woman in the picture. It was a waterbender who had long dark hair, and a necklace much like the one Braya now wore around her neck. She took the necklace off and looked at it. She remembered cleaning blood off it and putting it on herself, but why was it covered in blood and where did she get it? She couldn't keep her memories straight and any questions about what she remembered would lead to pain.

A firebender outside her cell started messing around with an earthbender. Every time he shot fire the burning smell made her think of the girl, she had seen a year ago. They had burned her alive and she wasn't sure why. She wondered what they did with the body once they left the bunker with it. Ever since then Braya was careful to control her anger since she found it to be a direct connection to her firebending. She thought there was better, healthier, ways of learning to bend, but Gang told her there wasn't. She was best at firebending since she had a never-ending supply of anger. All she had to do was think of memories that made her angry and she had fire burning at her fingertips. Similar feelings made other elements controllable. When she focused on her sadness, she could waterbend. When she focused on her fear, she could earthbend. Recently, she found that if she focused on her anxiety, she could airbend. Using her negative emotions to bend came at a cost; however, she used much more energy, leaving her exhausted.

Every night when she would fall asleep, she would find herself in the spirit world. She knew who she was in the spirit world, but because of the disconnect in her mind from the abuse, when she woke up in the physical world she would forget again. She hadn't seen the figure, who she realized was Aang, in the spirit world for months. She would reach out every night, but there was never a response. After a year of trying and getting no response, Braya stopped calling. She walked around the spirit world, learning what she could about it. She met other spirits and a little about herself from the Aye-Aye spirit. "I see the Avatar once again ignores your call," the spirit said to Braya. She caught sight of him and walked towards him.

"He hasn't for about a year now," Braya responded.

"He will come around," the spirit said with a small smile.

"Can I ask you something?" The spirit nodded, "Why do I know who I am when in the spirit world, but not when I'm in the physical world?"

"You were created by spirits to ensure that you always had our guidance if something were to go wrong with the Avatar. Right now, your body is fighting with your spirit. Your mind only knows you are in pain, and it will do anything to make it stop. You are going to have a battle between your mind and spirit when the time comes. You are going to have to overpower the pain to do what is right not what is comfortable. The Avatar can help you with that. The bond between you two has not been established yet, but once it is, you will remember who you are, and you will have power you never did."