Burnt Out - Zuko x OC

Painfully, Wonderfully, Completely.

Light. Bright, warm, yellow light.

Rolling green hills and clouds that floated aimlessly without carrying the threat of showers.

Peaceful fauna that fed on the shrubs near a far off brook. They sustained themselves off of Mother Earth alone.

Kai's vision slowly cleared, she could see the entire world from her seat atop a short cliff. Her feet dangled over the ledge and her hands were folded neatly in her lap, as if she'd been picked up and placed there, like a child being carried to bed by her parents.

"Where am I?" Kai said, and her throat no longer burned. Her lungs no longer ached when she spoke. "Is this the afterlife? Did I die?"

She became aware of a being sitting next to her. Not fearfully aware, or suddenly aware, just aware. Kai turned her head.

"Not yet. And no, this isn't the afterlife. This is just some place in between here and there and everywhere else."

Kai had only known this figure for a fraction of a moment, but she was already so dear to her. She seemed genuinely pleasant, everything that Kai wished she'd been. She. She seemed perfectly feminine, with her sandy hair cascading like water over her chest. Her skin seemed olive colored at first, but the longer Kai stared at her the more she became aware that it was actually tinted green. Her eyes were a mixture of all the shades they could be, forming a deep, hypnotizing hazel.

Kai turned back to face the world that her world could never be. "Why am I here? I don't think this was part of the divine plan." She asked, and the woman chuckled.

"Excuse me for answering a question with a question, but have you ever followed my plans for you?"

Her head snapped back around and she looked the woman up and down, digesting all of her ethereal beauty. Kai did know her. "Mother..." She whispered. "Mother Earth."

Mother smiled, "That isn't my name, but you're welcome to call me that."

In the mortal world, shame would've been filling Kai's chest by now. It was there, she knew it was, but that was the extent of it. Kai only felt a subtle hint of content, nothing more or less.

"I tried to protect you, Mother. Please believe me. I tried to give you a respectable end."

"I know, dear." Mother said.

An armadillo lion purred in the distance. They were predatory creatures, Kai knew that, but it was nuzzling gently alongside something like a hopping llama. These animals didn't live like this naturally, but here there was no blood spill. There was no violence. A peacefulness washed over Kai when she came to this realization.

"Is this when I'm supposed to ask all of the questions I never got answers to? And then I'm gone?"

Mother shrugged, "It's your Inbetween, I can't very well tell you how to experience it. Are there questions you'd like to ask?"

Kai nodded. There were so many.

"Then I will do my best to answer them."

"The oni... it said it would save us." Kai played with her fingers in her lap. She felt as weightless as sunlight. "I know that I shouldn't have believed it, but why did it lie to me?"

Mother's bubblegum pink lips pursed and the thin lines above them could be seen. They were beautiful wrinkles that defined her infinite wisdom. "The darkness that lingered inside of you may have been malicious in nature, but it was not a liar. You moved too slowly, Kai — you hesitated for just a moment too long — when your hourglass ran empty, the darkness had only just taken control. It's time ran out in place of yours."