When the Pure is Poisoned

Chapter 1 - Scarlet Stars

A/N hi everyone!! So just in case you missed it, this is a squad story set in the Avatar's world (although in more modern times). I worked really hard on this, as it's something I'm quite passionate about, so please enjoy. (Also I'm thinking of deleting the second Squad Apocalypse story, I don't have much motivation for it anymore and honestly it's turning to shit....let me know your thoughts). 

I squeeze my fist and his throat closes up; he begins to choke. I can feel the pulse of his blood in my hands. He dangles above me, suspended in the air, body rigid like a wooden puppet's. The night is cold, moonlight slipping on the water and the ice of the bridge and buildings. The moon itself, peaking through a pile of muddy clouds, pours its power into me. It surges through my hands and jerks Liam's bony body back and forth. His bronze framed glasses fall from his face and shatter on the ground.
Somehow, his blood manages to pump faster. I can feel the burn in his lungs. Fear erupts in the back of my mind. No. Nononono I can't be doing this. Fight back. Fight back! The power is too strong. My fingers twitch uncontrollably. Blood spills from Liam's eyes, turning that haunting blue to a crimson red.
A single cloud moves to brush at the moon, and I feel my chance. A flicker in the surge. I use it to rip my grip away from Liam, in the process accidentally flinging him across the bridge and into the canal. I watch helplessly as his stick of a body is retaken by gravity and plummets out of sight, followed by a distant splash.
Terror takes hold of my heart as my mind regains some control. I feel the pressure of the moon again as it blows the cloud away, casting it's evil eye back on me. Panic tightens my spine. I jerk my body in the other direction, managing about three steps before I lose my footing and the concrete slams me in the face. The stars spin a scarlet song in the swirling sky.

When I open my eyes, the first thing I see is a strip of sunlight, alive with dust that dances in a downward dip. I push myself up from the warm embrace of blankets and rise from the almost unfamiliar bed and search the almost unfamiliar room. It's small and features only the bed I had been sleeping on. I find the door, a deep, white crested ice, and push it open.
"You're awake!" Licia's voice sings out. She drops the platter of pancakes she's holding back onto the counter and runs over to me, straight into my arms. I wrap them around her head protectively. Licia is a small girl, around my age (seventeen) with long dark hair streaked with blue. Her apartment is small yet more than decent, equipped with stacks of games in almost every corner. The kitchen leads into an open lounge room area, the huge floor-to-ceiling windows looking down over the sleepy city of Shai.
"What happened? I found you unconscious in the middle of the street! By the bridge over the main waterway, corner of Times Ave. I brought you right back here, but you wouldn't wake up. I thought you'd be hungry so I made breakfast-"
"Wait. The bridge?" I interrupt her. Fear laces through my bones as I begin to remember.
"Yeah...why? Is something wrong?" Worry glitters in her hazel eyes. I instantly feel really bad for what I'm about to do.
"Licia I'm so sorry..." I step back into the spare bedroom and grab my navy blue jacket that is resting on the bed.
"Why? What's going on?"
I slip the jacket on. "I need to go. Like right now."
Grabbing a pancake on the way, I head for the door.
"Becca! You can't just-"
"I'm really sorry, but I have to."
I force my eyes to the ground as I shut the door behind me, knowing that if I meet her eyes again I'll crumble.

       * * *

After a bit of detective work at Times Ave, I gather that Liam is, in fact, alive, and currently residing in Hakya hospital. I high tail it across that damned ice bridge and into the heart of the Northern Water Tribe. People flow about happily, laughing and chatting in the main square. A group of benders have several tendrils of water stretching high into the mid-morning sky, each glittering with a different colour. A crowd had gathered and is oohing and ahhing at the sight.
I finally reach the hospital and walk/jog towards the service desk, asking for the whereabouts of Liam Coombs. The place smells of chemicals and sickness.
I'm taken to a quiet hospital wing and into a private room. There Liam lays, like a log, draped in a floral gown under matching blankets. Despite the situation, laughter escapes me.
"Nice getup."
A look of surprise passes Liam's sharp featured face, then a smile spreads.
"I know right," he replies. "I'm so cool."
I laugh again and move to sit down on the dull green sofa chair next to the hospital bed. All the worry and tension had drained out of me completely, leaving only a happy, almost tired feeling.
But then words were a thing I had to use. Ugh.
"I'm so sorry Liam." I start. Lame. How do you apologise for throwing someone over a bridge?
"That wasn't you, was it?" He asks pleadingly. I think about this.
"No. I mean, yes, I mean - I don't know. I couldn't control it. I'm so sorry. I was so worried that I'd hurt you, or worse..." I couldn't finish the sentence.
Liam settles a little in the bed, as if pleased. "Then it wasn't you."
"Then what was it though..?" I say quietly.
Liam turns his head and looks me dead in the eye. His Iris's are ghostly in his pale head.
"If I didn't know any better, I'd say that was-"
"Hey Becca," a new voice cuts in suddenly. "Whatcha doing here?"
I look up with a snap, like a child that had just been caught doing something wrong. Claire, a tall, stubborn minded, outgoing firebender (and also one of my closest friends), stands in the doorway giving me one of her looks. You know. Her looks.
"Nothing. Just came to check on Liam." I say pointedly, giving Liam a glance that pleads to keep last night a secret.
"Ah, okay." She replies, coming to stand by the bed.
"Claire's been here with me all night," Liam says, a note of something strange in his voice. "Keeping me company."
I laugh for a beat. "What are you even doing here? I thought you lived on the Fire Nation mainland now."
Claire pulls her waves of dark dyed red hair over one shoulder, the deep indents of apple blush bringing out the dark chocolate brown of her eyes.
"I do." She says. That's all she says. I smile.
"Cryptic as always."
"Oh, hey Becca, I needed to tell you something last night, before..." Before I went crazy and thew you into the canal. "...before my accident. Shepo wants to see you. Urgently. She's in the Fire Nation Capital."
This sparks my attention.
"Huh. Okay, thanks. I'll head over there now."
"Like, right now?" Claire asks, a slither of surprise in her voice.
"Yeah, why not? I have nothing else to do. And I'd like to visit some friends while I'm there." I reply.
"Fair enough." Claire concludes.
"Okay well I better go, bye Liam, get better soon okay?" I hold his gaze for just a little longer than normal, trying to convey a last message of apology. He smiles at me. "Cya Claire."
As I make my way out of the hospital, one thought plays on my mind. The sentence Claire cut off.
'If I didn't know any better, I'd say that was-'
And I think I know the end of that sentence. I desperately don't want to believe it.
Blood bending.