The Lost Waterbender (Avatar: The Last Airbender Fanfiction)

The Explosion

Mara

I weakly opened my eyes a sliver. Just that took a huge amount of effort.

Mara

That voice. I'd heard it before.

I looked around and saw I was on the deck of the burning ship. Smoke billowed out from below deck, creating a thick haze. Coming from the smoke, I just barely managed to make out a figure walking towards me. It was a young boy with a ponytail dressed in Water Tribe clothing. I'd seen him somewhere before, but couldn't think of the place.

He knelt down next to me, a small smile on his face. "I promised I'd protect you, you know. This isn't really helping."

I tried to speak, but my mouth was too dry to form the words.

"Don't speak," the boy said. "I'll be going soon anyway. I just wanted to tell you to get up."

"Who-who are you?" I managed to get out.

The boy smiled. "You don't remember? I'm not surprised. You were only a baby when you were taken. I guess you remembered enough to see me, though."

I raised my eyebrows. "Th-that doesn't answer my question."

He shrugged. "Guess not. You'll find out at some point."

"But how will I find you?"

He gave me a mischievous smile. "Don't know. I'm just a memory pulled out of your subconscious." He turned to leave, the spun back around. "But Mara? Get up."

"Who is Mara?" I asked.

He didn't answer. "Get up, Badger. Get up."

"Who are you?" I insisted, trying to get up. "Tell me!"

"Get up! Badger, get up!"

My eyes flew open. Raiko crouched next to me, shaking my shoulder. "Badger! You have to get up now!"

Groaning, I sat up. The ship was on fire and smoking, just as it has been in my dream. But the boy was gone.

"Come on, Badger," Raiko said. "We need to get off the ship."

He helped me stand up. I looked around for anyone else, but we were the only ones on the ship. "We have to go back for everyone. "

"The explosion probably destroyed the bottom," Raiko said sadly. "Anyone who was down there is dead."

I looked up at the high deck. "What about in there?"

Raiko shrugged. "I don't think the explosion got that high."

"Then we need to find everyone who got trapped up there," I said. I looked out t the ocean and saw another boat much smaller than the one we were on sailing towards the port. I clenched my fists, knowing the weapons and all the crew members were safely on board, laughing at how they fooled the City of Outcasts.

I refilled my water pouch before Raiko and I ran up the stairs to the upper deck, which looked like a small tower plopped onto a boat. We rushed up the stairs, checking any rooms we came across.

The final door led to the lookout. The room had windows so one could look out over the ocean, and a steering wheel. From the window I saw that any idiot would be able to see intruders coming on board. They would've seen us as soon as we set foot on the deck.

"There's no one up here," Raiko said solemnly.

"We have to check downstairs, maybe there were survivors!"

Raiko nodded. "We'll have to be extremely careful, though. Something could collapse on us."

"Don worry," I said. "I think the fire and waterbender can make it through."