Element Academy

The Truth, the End, the Avatar

"There are too many of them!" Talula shouts as she extinguishes a shot of flames.

"We will rescue the Avatar!" One of the benders shout as they earth bend a chunk of the wall at Crystal.

Crystal dodges the rock and freezes the earthbender's feet within an ice cocoon, "Is that what you think you're doing?!"

A waterbender frees the earthbender, "The Avatar belongs in China!"

"The Avatar belongs where the universe places them!" One of the camp elders shout back.

The ground shakes beneath their feet. The earth juts up from beneath Crystal sending her flying backward and slamming her into the wall.

"Crystal!" Talula screams in horror.

"No one will keep us from the Avatar!"

Crystal slumps to the ground; a fog fills her head and threatens to send her into darkness.

You must stay strong young one.

"Who's there?"

We are you.

"Me?...Can you help me then? To save the camp?"

Yes.

Crystal's body is filled with a vaguely familiar power.

"Get away from her!" she hears Page shout in the distance. She looks past the benders to see Page and Demetri attacking the back of the pack.

"Page! Demetri! Get back!" she shouts.
A blue tint overtakes Crystal's vision. Her mind becomes distant. She is conscious of her body standing up, but she knows is no longer able to control it, for its moving on its own.

Air swirls around her feet lifting her up into her air. She brings back her fist and punches forward. A gust of air blasts forward. She punches forward again and fire flies from her fist. The Chinese benders duck. She sends another blast of air, taking them by surprise, and sending them flying backwards. Her body moves forward at a frightening speed, but her fear is drowned out by a determination to stop the fighting.

She flies above the sprawled out benders and out into the square. Crystal finds herself hovering above a dome of earth that is protecting the coy fish pond. She looks down at all the benders. They have stopped their fighting and are gazing at her in fear and awe.

She feels her feet touch the mound as he body lowers. The blue light recedes and so does the enormous power flowing through her. She falls to her knees before forcing herself into a standing position, swallowing her nausea before she speaks.   "I am the real Avatar.  I am here of my own free will and this is where the universe wants me to be. And if that means anything to any of you, you will stop fighting. All of this is wrong. We are supposed to be a community working with each other, not against. The four elements are about balance; yin and yang, not war and power."

Crystal repeats what she just said in Chinese so that everyone can understand her.

 "We were told that you were stolen from China after your rebirth!" someone shouts with a thick accent. Others shout out in agreement.

"I wasn't stolen," Crystal tells them. She takes a deep breath, "I was adopted."

Everyone gasps. Crystal runs her hand though her hair. She has always denied it until now, too ashamed to admit the truth about her origins. 

Until now she has clung to the belief that her adoptive parents are her parents and nothing more, that she has adopted and biological siblings, but that belief is all an illusion; there are only adopted siblings. It is time that she faces the facts and shares them as well,  "They believe my mother was Chinese and my father Mexican. I was told that I was found in a trash can in some back alley in China. My adoptive parents were told that happened to me because I was both a girl and took on too much of my Mexican traits...They took me in when I was still very young and raised me as their own ever since."