Element Academy

Who is the Avatar...Crystal

Crystal sees the flames. For a moment she waits for Talula to move, but she seems to be in too much of a daze to do so.

Crystal's words of being Talula's guardian echoes in her head. She's out of water, but she has to save her friend's life. Instinct takes over and she reacts. Crystal can hear herself call Talula's name. She hears her own name being called as she jumps in front of Talula to protect her. Suddenly, she becomes aware of a door opening behind her. A gust of air extinguishes the flames and causes the firebender to dodge. She finds herself being pulled into the room along with Talula.

The door closes and Crystal is engulfed by darkness. Suddenly, candles of four different colors ignite lining the large room with their flickering light. Crystal looks around in wonder and confusion, this is the testing room.

Talula sits up holding her head, "What just happened?"

"You two should be safe here for the moment," someone says. Crystal looks up to see one of the elders standing above them. 

"How can that wooden door stop a bender?" Talula asks with a spark of her old personality.

"The door has magical properties that will keep them out for now, but it won't hold for long," the elder explains patiently.

Crystal stands and looks at the door. She becomes painfully aware of the eerie silence that fills the room. How is it that no sounds of the fighting going on on the other side of this door are seeping in?

By now Talula is standing as well, she turns to the woman who pulled them in, "I'm going to ignore your whole magic comment and ask; what the heck is going on?!"

"One of you two is the Avatar and we have brought you here to figure out who is," another elder responds from the shadows. The elder who brought them in walks to the table where the other elders are seated, the flickering light catches her blue robes and as she turns to face them, its as if there is a flame dancing within her eyes. 

Crystal is taken by surprise, last she checked no one except her friends and Saphire knows she can airbend. "What are you talking about?"

Talula clears her throat, "I may have told them that you can airbend too."

"Why would you do that?!" Crystal tries to think of a logical reason for her to tell the elders, but can't think of any.

"Being the Avatar is a lot harder than I thought it would it be. I didn't want to do it anymore so I told the elders that you might be the Avatar too cause you can airbend. They were supposed to get you this morning, but I guess not," Talula tells her like its no big deal.

"You guess not?!" Crystal repeats with a flare of anger.  "I was chased by a ninja last night who wanted to take Page away and then we had to jump in the rainbow pond to escape them. And then during breakfast, we were taken away for questioning and then trapped in a dungeon for who knows how long with Sapphire, Mahoney, and Demetri because we were trying to find you, the self proclaimed Avatar, to tell you about the traitor!"

" You found out who the traitor is?!" Talula claps her hands in excitement, "Who is it?"

"Did you even hear half of what I just said?" Crystal asks in complete bafflement.

Talula waves her hands dismissively,  "Yes yes, ponds and dungeons, but who is the traitor?"

Crystal howls in frustration.

"We were listening child and what you have told us is most troubling. We cannot dwell on the traitor right now, time is of the essence. We must find out who is the Avatar. It is the only way to save the camp," The waterbending elder tells them.

Crystal looks at her skeptically,  "What can the Avatar do to stop all this fighting?"

"The Avatar is a person of balance, and promotes peace. Seeing the Avatar alive and reincarnated will bring the fighting to an end," She responds.

"Okay, what do we do?" Crystal asks.

"You both must stand in the center of the carvings on the floor," she instructs. The two girls do as they are told. Crystal's stomach is full of knots. She wonders if Talula feels the same, but when she looks over at her, Talula's emotions are hidden behind a mask of stone.

The waterbending elder walks around to the front of the table. Crystal didn't notice it before, but their section is raised up from the rest of the floor. The elder bends water from a jug on the side of the room, just as graceful as any teenager she has seen if not more. She bends the water into the grooves of the floor.

The floor takes over from there. The water begins to glow bright blue and races to fill in all the carvings on the floor. Crystal watches the water with a mixture of awe and fear.  What if she isn't the Avatar? What if she is?

The water did this the last time I was here, but nothing grand happened when it was done. What if that means Talula really is the Avatar? Crystal thinks.

Then, the water splits and comes at the center circle where the two girls are standing in from two different directions. The water reaches the circle and branches off again to fill in both sides of the circle evenly. Four streams, four elements. Then they hit, completing the circle. The water shines brighter than before, it's practically blinding.

Suddenly, Crystal feels something inside her she's never felt before. A warm light fills every part of her being. Its warm and inviting, yet cold and uncomfortable at the same time. It feels as if a channel in a river has been unblocked and is free to flow again.

And then the light recedes and is gone and Crystal is on her hands and knees. She feels exhausted and nauseous. What was that?

Crystal can hear Talula's voice asking if she is okay, but it sounds so far away. She focus on her hands to steady her mind and rapidly beating heart.

A firm yet gentle hand grabs her shoulder.  Crystal fights the fading nausea and looks up to see the faces of all the elders looking down at her with joy, but also with worry.

"Don't worry, the first time you go into the Avatar State is always the worst. It will get better as time goes on. However, it will continue to feel draining so you must be careful when you go into it. Understand? "

They help Crystal into a standing position. She shakes her head, "I-I don't understand. "

"Crystal, you are the Avatar!" Talula exclaims, "Which means I'm not!"

Crystal opens her mouth to ask a question. The nausea is gone and so is the fatigue, but what now?

Suddenly, the door bursts open with splinters of wood flying everywhere. At least a dozen Chinese benders storm into the room.

"Hand over the Avatar!" one of them shouts in Chinese.

"Not going to happen!" Crystal shouts back.

"Crystal?? When did you learn to speak Chinese? And what are you doing?" Talula asks, she must be able to speak Chinese too.

Crystal looks at the elders and Talula, "Trust me."

"You have to get out to the square and stop the fighting," One of the elders tells Talula catching onto what Crystal's plan is. Talula nods gravely also catching on.

They all ready themselves for a battle that could determine the fate of the bending world forever.