Reborn In Water || ATLA

I'm Awake Now

"Don't fall asleep to dream. I'm looking for a way out now, peace of mind is all I need." - Goo Goo Dolls

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"So if I was gone for a hundred years what did the world think happened to me?" Aang questioned his friends as they set up camp on a new island after leaving Kyoshi. He had been avoiding asking it for some time now but his curiosity had finally gotten the best of him.

"There were lots of different stories," Katara explained with an arm full of firewood. "Some said you weren't born again into the Air Nomads and that the cycle was broken."

"Or they believed that you were killed with the rest of the airbenders. Gran-Gran said Avatar Roku hadn't been dead even fifteen years when Sozin attacked the Air Temples. That would've made you just a kid still, so a lot of people thought you were dead." Sokka shrugged and Aang flinched at his words. The truth was a harsh one the young monk wasn't totally ready to accept yet.

"But what about my Akira?" Aang asked. "They should've been born into the Fire Nation. The monks were trying to establish contact with the Fire Sages to connect us. If they're still alive, maybe they can help me! They'd have to be a firebending and waterbending master by now, maybe they can teach us instead." He turned to Katara. "It might be faster than going all the way to the North Pole, and then they could teach me firebending too!"

Katara looked to her brother for backup and sighed. "We know that the Akira is dead," She admitted sadly. "When yours wouldn't side with the Fire Lord they were killed. According to the cycle, even if another one was born, they would've been born into..."

"The Air Nomads." Aang realized it all too soon, hanging his head. "But they were all gone, so the Akira couldn't be reborn. It's true then, I really will have to face the Fire Lord all on my own."

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Rain poured down around Aelita, lightning decorating the sky as thunder roared in her ears. She was standing eerily close to the edge of the tallest cliff she had ever seen, a place new yet old. Water crashed with fury on the jagged rocks below and beside her stood a now almost familiar face, the man from the ship the day she first faced the Avatar. He was barely an adult and he looked exhausted, beaten, broken. His hair lay limp on his face and over his shoulders, breathing labored, skin covered in fifth, and his clothing scorched.

The smell of blood and death clouded Aelita's senses. She looked around her only to see the bodies of slain soldiers fallen where they once stood, all of them sporting armor that hadn't been used in over fifty years now. Directly in front of Aelita lay the body of a woman, her eyes still open, her mouth trickling blood. If she was frozen the way she died then her death had to have been anything but peaceful.

The woman lay at the feet of the only two other people still standing other than Aelita and the man beside her, and he was glaring daggers at them. To the left was a man she recognized from history books and monuments to be Fire Lord Sozin. 

Beside him stood one of his great-grandsons.

Zuko looked to have aged at least five years, his features were more refined, his jaw sharper and hair longer but still her Zuko. He was the traditional headpiece reserved only for whoever sat upon the Fire Nation throne and he was looking at Aelita with malice she had never seen before.

"Zuko," Aelita croaked out, dazed and confused. "What's going on?"

"This is your last chance to join me." He answered, venom dripping from his tongue as he spoke.

"Join you?" Aelita questioned. "Zuko, I've followed you everywhere, remember?"

"You either fight beside me or you fight against me." Her Prince spat out. How hauntingly similar he sounded to his father at that moment was enough to send shivers down her spine.