Yin And Yang |WangXian| Avatar AU

1| Dead Beginnings

Fire.

Fire was everywhere. It greedily consumed the earth, eating up the grass, the trees, the flowers, and then the sky. The entire area was being burned to ashes. The screams of painful agony thickly coated the air along with the suffocating black smoke. The condensed ashes smothered their lungs, along with the overpowering stench of iron and burning flesh, which clung heavily to the air.

A woman in white but ashen garments ran blindly around the burning palace. Her eyes were searching for something or someone, but everywhere she looked, there were only the golden, orange, and red flames devouring everything. She coughed, blocking her nose and mouth with her sleeves. Her pale sword glimmered, and she raised it to cut through the fallen roof debris that blocked her path. Her eyes searched further, desperation coated all over and glistening with tears.

"MINGLIANG!!!" she screamed as loud as she could.

The reply she was given was the continuous onslaught of fire crackling.

"Mingliang!! Mingliang!! Where are you?" She cried desperately in search of this person.

The fire had weakened the wooden beam above her, which eventually gave way. When she heard the object falling, the woman dove to the side while making every effort to avoid catching fire. She gasped as sparks flew from the fall, some aimed in her direction. She raised her long sleeve to shield herself but then hissed as some still landed on her exposed skin, and some were hot enough to burn through her white clothing, charring it black and her skin red. She quickly wiped them off of her and paid no mind to the burned flesh wounds that now decorated her once perfectly porcelain skin. Her determined eyes looked around in search for Mingliang.

Behind her, another pillar weakened by the flames was about to stumble and fall over her. The woman in white was, however, distracted and did not see it coming. It started to tilt toward where she stood. The woman saw a shadow casted from above her. Her pale blue eyes became wide, too frozen to move and evade death at that second. Then suddenly, an earth slab rose from the ground and punctured the pillar mid-air by falling onto the woman in white. The woman had her eyes shut tight, wondering when she was to be pummeled. But as the pain had yet to come, she opened her eyes to assess what had happened. Upon seeing the earth slab, she gasped and turned around to look for who was responsible. Her eyes then landed on a woman on the ground with her hand outstretching exactly in her direction. The woman looked extremely weak and pale. She was dressed in red robes and gold accessories. Her eyes had honey-brown shades that looked golden with the fire around her everywhere.

"Mingliang!" the woman in white screamed, happy yet worried to see her.

Mingliang brought her hand back down to support her weight. She exhaled a heavy breath. The woman in white ran to her side and helped her sit upright.

"Lan Yi..." Mingliang gasped. "What the hell are you doing here?" She spat it out, almost wanting to laugh at how, indeed, it was almost like hell here, but then she winced as the words made it hard for her to breathe.

"I came here as soon as I heard of what he had done." Lan Yi said with furrowed brows. Anger seeped into her expression but it also came with disbelief and betrayal stark in her eyes.

"It's too late... He has done it. He has succeeded. I have failed." Mingliang laughed dryly and then coughed. She intended for it to be short and quick; however, it felt like a stab to her chest, and her coughing fit went on longer than she would have liked. She felt something rise up to her throat, and out came blood flooding her mouth.

"Mingliang! Do not worry. Rest and save your strength." Lan Yi ordered. "I shall get us out of here." She took out a white handkerchief from her sleeves and wiped the blood on Mingliang's lips.