Disclaimer: The Avatar/Legend of Korra Universe and associated characters are not my intellectual property.
Summary: In which the warehouse explosion during the end of season four results in the death of Avatar Korra, Kuvira's victory over the United Republic, and the new avatar reincarnating into the middle of an arms race between the Fire Nation and the Earth Empire.
Honestly, this story is one third because I wanted to explore what it would have meant for the Avatar Universe if Kuvira had won, one third because I wanted to write giant robot fights, one third me wanting to write a complete asshole avatar, and 100% because I could.
While most of the characters featured in this story are OCs, some characters from the original series will be featured and will be tagged as I add chapters that they appear in. Due to the main character being an OC, mention of events taking place between Korra's death and the current time period (including the fate of some of our favorite LoK characters) will not be revealed until the current characters are given that information.
Chapter One: The First Week
It was a widely recognized fact of the universe that you only went mecha fighting if you had nothing left to lose or you were dead stupid.
Wei Yuan did not consider himself a desperate guy. Oh, he and his had never been wealthy, sure–not in money, looks, or anywhere that counted, anyway, but they had never been exactly poor either. He knew good and well that they didn't do this for the money, even if it was a good excuse.
The thing was, Wei wasn't dumb either. He knew this was a bad idea (they both did, really, but Meiling was never going to let that stop her). If anything he had always been too smart for his own good. It just so happened that it was a common trend that too-smart-people tended to do dead stupid things when they were bored, and most of the time being 'dead stupid' here ended up with just being plain old dead. He knew that. He knew that this was an awful, terrible idea. Somehow, he really couldn't bring himself to care.
"Looks like one of the newer models," Meiling's voice barely carried over the thunder of crowd noise from the arena. As always, she sounded a little too excited for someone scoping out the competition. "They've got one of those wicked saw-attachments on the right arm though, so heads up."
Pausing in the middle of oiling a foot joint, Wei glanced up to the screen suspended from the far wall. The video feed to the arena was poor at best, but it was hard to miss the two three-story mecha's in the center fighting. One of them was currently locked in a death grip from behind and swinging a giant saw around in an attempt to get free. Such embellishments were pretty common since gun attachments had been banned from fighting units a couple of years ago.
"What makes you think that one will win?" Wei wondered, going back to his oiling. Only one more joint to go and they should be fine for the night.
"Clear case of superior craftsmanship." Meiling said, this time having to shout from where she sat on their own mecha's shoulder when the crowd noise escalated into a roar of approval. "That one might look like it was made someone's home garage but it's clearly well designed."
"And the piloting has nothing to do with it at all?" Wei couldn't help but quip.
"Oh, well, the piloting is pretty decent, too, I'll give him that." She conceded. There was a sound of a platinum plate slamming back into place as Meiling finished up, and a moment later she was hopping off of the base of the ladder next to him. "Though, honestly I think we have him beat in that area."
Satisfied with the right foot, Wei stood, stretched, and moved over to the left. "What about engineering-wise?"
Meiling made the annoyed little puff of air she always did when she felt put-out and pulled on the rim of the floppy brown hat she insisted in wearing everywhere. "Oh please. We might not be winning any beauty contests, but at least give me a little credit. We've gotten here haven't we?"
She did have a point there.
Mecha fights were pretty straight forward; they kinda had to be in order to hold the attention of the fanbase. With the rapid development of weapons technology during the past decade and a half mecha units had been designed, redesigned, and redesigned again for military purposes, and as newer models continued to be implemented and older ones cast aside, it hadn't taken long for the shadier side of civilian life to get ahold of cast-off models that could be replicated by anyone with a good enough knowledge of engineering. Underground rings that had previously thrived off of Earth Rumble quickly switched over to new forms of entertainment in order to keep up with the times. Those who had previously gathered to watch earthbenders beat the snot out of each other with earthbending could now watch metalbenders beat the snot out of each other in mecha suits instead. The sport stayed the same at its core; the first one to get knocked down permanently lost, and the winner advanced to the next opponent.
That was pretty much the gist of the match currently finishing up on the screen. Unlike Earth Rumble, the fightmaster for the mecha matches liked to mix things up a bit. In order to keep everyone in the crowd engaged and looking forward to the next match, Fightmaster Xiao ended the night with what he called 'all or nothing' elimination, during which the top four competitors for the night all entered the arena at once for one big brawl. Who ever won there got a bonus cash prize along with their usual winnings from the night.
"You know this is a really bad idea, right?" Wei said. The crowd noise irrupted suddenly, and on-screen the saw-armed mecha was standing over its opponent victorious. Meiling had called it after all.
Meiling gave his shoulder a playful shove, nearly sending him tumbling off the foot of the mecha. "Don't be such a worry-wart! You'll do great!"
There was a lot he could have chosen to respond with sarcastically, but before he could open his mouth the door on the other side of the room opened and a woman in high heels with a clipboard walked in.
"Contestant 14 to the arena in five minutes," she drawled in a bored sounding voice. "Which one of you is piloting?" She glanced up from her sheet briefly, and then did a double take.
"That would be me." Wei said.
"And, yes, we're a little young to be doing this." Meiling said, answering the question on her face. At fifteen they were the youngest contestants to make it to the bonus match in the past three years.
The woman still looked curious, "You look a lot alike."
It was true. Both of them had the same pale green eyes and obnoxiously unruly brown hair. Their sharp facial features were also strikingly similar, and if it weren't for the fact that Meiling kept her hair in long braids and had breasts telling them apart would probably have been a nightmare. Wei smirked. "Yeah, well, I hear that's pretty common with twins."
"Oh," the woman said, shifting awkwardly. "Well, like I said, you're on in five." She glanced at her pocket watch, "probably more like four now. Good luck." She left quickly through the door she had come from.
"You're on!" Meiling squealed (actually squealed) and tackled him into an awkward hug. "Good luck!"
"Yeah," he sighed, "Thanks."
The cockpit on all standard mechas was at the top of the suit. The three-story models had chambers typically about five meters by five meters, large enough to comfortably metalbend and operate levers but not much else. Most home-designed models had windshields that wrapped around the front half of the chamber, allowing for a pretty typical range of vision. Meiling, however, who had big ideas despite their small budget, had built the windshield to wrap all the way around, allowing a 360 degree possible range of vision.
"Testing, testing," the Meiling's voice buzzed to life over the radio, "You getting this, Wei?"
"Loud and clear as usual," Wei confirmed, flipping the appropriate switches to power up the unit's main functions and strapping himself in to the safety harness so that he wouldn't get thrown around.
"You've got one minute before the round starts. You feeling pumped yet?"
Wei slid his goggles down over his eyes. His hands were sweaty, his knees were weak with pre-match nerves, and he was just starting to feel the beginnings of an adrenaline rush pulse through his system. "Sure, as much as usual."
Somehow the annoyed puff of air carried over the line. "You're no fun. Just relax, this one is going to be cake!"
He nearly smacked his palm to his forehead, remembering at the last moment that his goggles were in place. Last time Meiling had spent almost a week laughing at the red marks on his forehead. "Why would you say that?" He hissed. "Now you've gone and jinxed it!"
"Since when were you superstitious?" she shot back.
Before he could think of a reply, the rock wall of the waiting chamber they were in crumbled away, and it was go time.
By the time Wei walked his mecha into place on bottom left corner of the arena, the other three had already gotten into place in their respective corners. The video feed had not done the sheer size and volume of the crowd justice–since his last match about half an hour ago all empty seats had filled and people were standing crowded against the rock walls that formed the boundaries in the stands. The stands raised about two stories high above the ground for optimum viewing (and to keep spectators from getting stepped on), which only served to make Wei feel twitchy with so many people up close and personal while he was trying to concentrate.
A voice crackled to life over the loudspeaker and the ref scrambled into position in the center of the ring. "Ladies and gentlemen, it's the last match of the night," the announcer's deep voice boomed through the underground cavern and somehow managed to be heard over the sudden burst of cheering and shouting, "and we all know what that means!"
A couple of loudmouths from the front of the crowd somewhere to Wei's right took up the shout first, before it spread to the whole crowd, "Brawl! Brawl! Brawl!"
"That's right!" The announcer boomed. "Welcome, contestants, to All or Nothing Elimination. You know the rules, folks; anything goes, and when your mecha stops moving you're out! Let's get ready to brawl!"
More cheering from the stands. Blood was pounding in Wei's ears, and his arms quivered with nervous energy. He could practically feel the other pilots tensing up in anticipation from their cockpits.
He was so concentrated on just breathing that he almost missed the sound of the ref's whistle, and suddenly the crowd disappeared and there was just the ring and the four other pilots.
The two units in the top two corners immediately launched at each other, apparently having both marked the other as the biggest threat. That was a common problem with mecha fighting–pilots who made it this far had a tendency to spend ninety percent of their time facing opponents one-on-one, so when it came to a brawl they stuck to what they were comfortable with and focused all of their concentration on one enemy at a time.
Seeing that two of the fighters were preoccupied, mecha number three, which just so happened to be the saw-armed unit from the last fight made a dash for Wei.
Predictable. Wei slid back into a defensive stance, bending the mechanics to respond to his movement. The saw-armed unit came in swinging the saw attachment out in front of him in a way that meant business. Such a heavy attack upfront would either break his stance and deal some wicked damage or force him to retreat backwards, right up against the arena wall.
As Saw Arm came crashing towards him, Wei shot out his hand and shoved one of the control levels forwards. Just as the unit dove at him, Wei's mecha bent forward and ducked underneath it. Frantically he yanked the lever back again, and he came launching back upright in just the right moment to grab Saw Arm by the waist. He didn't take the time to pay attention where exactly he was facing anymore, and bent mechanical arms to throwas hard as he could manage without straining any of the gears too badly. Meiling would skin him alive if he threw out the elbow joints again.
It was purely by coincidence the 'whatever direction I'm facing now' happened to be facing the other end of the arena where the other two contestants had been fighting. The newer looking of the two units had been holding its opponent in a pretty impressive headlock from behind when Saw Arm slid and crashed into both of them, raising enough dust from the impact to nearly mask all three from view for a moment.
Wei took a moment to reorient himself and wipe the sweat from his brow.
"That was so completely badass!" Meiling shouted over the radio, making him cringe. "Please tell me that wasn't an accident."
"Wha–of course not!" he probably would have sounded more convincing if his voice hadn't cracked in the middle of the statement.
Across the ring all three units were quickly disentangling themselves, and suddenly none of them seemed too concerned about taking out the guy next to them. All of them were facing his direction, and if mechas had any variety of body language Wei would have claimed they all looked like they wanted to murder him.
"I am so wrecked," he sighed. Well, at least he got one cool shot in. He slid into a metalbending stance, bracing for the inevitable onslaught.
The saw-armed unit hung back a bit this time and let the other two approach Wei first. The newer unit came at him first, and Wei noticed that the knuckles on its robotic hands had been reinforced with what looked damn close to a giant version of brass knuckles.
Well that's going to suck. He thought right as one of the giant fists came crashing towards him. He threw up his right arm just in time to block and redirect the blow so that it glanced off of his unit's arm with a horrendous scraping sound.
A moment later, contestant number two came at him from behind aiming to grab him by the shoulders, and he thanked the spirits and Meiling's mechanical foresight for the fact that his windshield wrapped all the way around the cockpit. He saw it coming just in time to stagger out of the way, leaving momentum to carry contestant colliding right into Brass Knuckle Bot.
Saw Arm dove back into the action while they were down and nearly took off the left arm on Wei's mecha with a wide swing that he just barely avoided. Damn this guy is annoying. Well as long as we're getting up close and personal…
Grinning in a way that was probably scarier than it had any right to be, Wei slammed the big red button in the middle of the control panel ("for effect" Meiling had said). Outside the cockpit, blades slide out of a long notch along the outside of each of his mecha's forearms.
"Alright!" Meiling whooped, "Bringing out the big guns…knives…whatever!"
Saw Arm apparently wasn't prepared to give him any free shots and it took Wei all of his effort to keep the saw attachment away from him. It didn't help that his unit nearly tripped over contestant two, who currently having trouble getting up off the ground after a punch from Brass Knuckle Bot has damaged its right knee joint. After fifteen seconds the ref blew his whistle, ruling him down for good.
Only the three of them left, then. That was good.
Brass Knuckle Bot was no longer preoccupied. That was bad.
The saw-armed unit let down his guard momentarily when the other mecha made to punch him in the side, and with the strength behind those blows Wei didn't want to think about how much damage that could do the mechanics. Seeing an opening as Saw Arm turned to avoid the blow, Wei slashed the blade attachment down on the elbow of the arm with the saw on it. The blade wasn't nearly sharp enough to sever the limb, but, based on the alarming shrieking sound the chainsaw made as it stuttered to a stop and the hand went limp, he had cut through enough to do some damage.
Saw Arm's pilot was clearly not happy and threw his unit forward straight at Wei, carrying them both to the ground.
Idiot. Wei was, at that moment incredibly grateful for the harness designed to keep pilots from being thrown around in their cockpits. Now we're both exposed. Sure enough, no sooner had they both hit the ground then Brass Knuckle Bot's fist slammed into Saw Arm with enough force to send it rolling off of Wei's own unit.
It was a tremendous pain in the ass getting mechas up off the ground quickly, and while you were down there was no easy way to move your unit by crawling or rolling, which left you exposed for several vital moments. The blow that the saw-armed unit took to the side had left a cringe-worthy dent, and the thing kept making odd jerking motions as the pilot struggled to get it up again. Wei frantically shoved at levers and forcefully bent metal joints to move. Brass Knuckle Bot was walking towards him.
A metal fist came flying at his left shoulder just as Wei had his unit sitting upright. He managed to rock just enough to the side to avoid a full hit, but his teeth rattled at the impact as reinforced knuckled slammed again the side of the units arm. That would have disabled the whole arm. He realized. Shit.
The ref blew his whistle. The saw-armed unit was out. Shit!
There were a usually couple of seconds between a mecha throwing a major punch and reorienting itself enough to be able to strike again. With the energy that Brass Knuckle Bot put behind blows for that big of an impact it took an extra second or two for it to recover, which was just long enough for Wei to get his unit back on its feet.
Apparently the other pilot wasn't afraid to push his unit's mechanics because the second Brass Knuckle Bot was recovered he was throwing it back into action. Wei had to slam his mecha's left arm up to immediately block a punch right to the chest, which was where the central power source was located. This guy is going to trash my unit! Meiling would probably have a few unrepeatable words to say to him if they ever met.
Brass Knuckle Bot tried to bring its fist down and break Wei's block. Unfortunately, the pilot forgot about the blades on Wei's unit's forearms, which sliced into the other mecha's wrist just enough for it joint to spark and the unit's fingers to slacken slightly as some of their connection got cut. Just a little more force and maybe he could sever the connection completely…
Except for some reason Wei couldn't get his left arm to move up any higher. Gritting his teeth, he felt at the metal gears controlling the arm's movement and willed them to move like he wanted. The left arm shook slightly, and he could hear a grinding sound from the shoulder. A stream of curses came from his mouth.
"Please tell me you're cursing because you just remembered something awful but unrelated." Meiling's voice buzzed over the radio.
"Bastard damaged something in the left shoulder." Wei spat. "I can't lift that arm all the way."
Brass Knuckles Bot suddenly pulled back its other arm and punched towards the chest again. Wei squeaked in a very un-manly way and barely got his other arm up in time to block it. The opposing pilot had apparently learned from his mistake and leaned more into the blow this time, Wei's forearm blades glancing against the platinum plating on the lower arm instead of slicing into the wrists.
"Hold on a sec," Wei said, mostly to himself. The other mecha was off balance because of their last blow.
Quickly as he could manage, Wei pushed his unit's arms forward and out, sliding the opposing unit's fists off and away from him. Then, instead of stepping back and away, he urged the controls forward, fast as he could manage.
For most mechas (including both Wei's and the unit he was fighting) platinum plating covered the unit like armor. Joints were typically left mostly unguarded in order to allow a wider range of movement, and most fighters couldn't afford materials to reinforce those areas for extra protection. This was also true of the place where the shoulders connected to a mecha's body.
Wei got in close to Brass Knuckle Bot, arms still up and held out in front him. Letting momentum carry him, he aimed the thin blades on his units forearms for the small area of exposure between shoulders and the upper body. The moment he made contact, he slashed down hard with both arms.
Sparks shot from the shoulder sockets of the other mecha. The arms flailed a couple times as the pilot frantically tried to move them. A moment later the sparks stopped and both arms fell limp at the unit's side.
Wei's mecha stayed locked in place right up in his opponent's business, and Wei could see into the other unit's cockpit, where the other pilot was quite obviously cursing at him.
Fifteen seconds passed and the ref blew the whistle.
It took a good twenty minutes to get the mecha back in the private garage they had rented out for the month. In all honesty it would have taken half the time if the left ankle weren't stalling from him pushing the unit to go to fast at the end (oh and that was going to be fun to fix) and he weren't hanging back to wait until most of the other mecha units were either put up or being put in for repairs. When a match was done it was done, but people were still people and Wei didn't want to deal with any petty jerks trying to start anything.
The moment his feet hit the ground they nearly collapsed underneath him, and he had to awkwardly stagger and lean back against the platinum plated robot leg behind him. Coming down from adrenaline was always the worst. He sank to the ground, and took a moment to feel the stone floor of the underground cavern through against his palm, paying attention to the small pulses that echoed through stone and dirt like Uncle Bai always made him during their lessons. Then the rare moment of indulgence was gone and he was back on his feet.
It didn't take as long to find Meiling as it probably should have. It was one of the convenient things about having a twin: you just had to ask around for 'that one that looks exactly like me except she's a girl'. It also helped that she seemed to pride herself in being noticeable. He only had to look for about a minute before following the sound of shouting into the chamber that served as the main lobby outside the arena, where she had cornered a tall, thick built guy in a business suit that he recognized as the Fightmaster Xiao, and she was giving him a piece of her mind. The dull crystal light in the room was casting a scary green glow on her eyes), and Mr. Xiao looked almost as uncomfortable as he was irritated.
"You, kid!" the fightmaster caught his eye before he could make it all the way across the room. Looking almost relieved when Wei walked up to them, he stabbed a thumb in Meiling's direction, "She's with you, aint she?"
"I'm not with anyone!" Meiling practically spat, "I told you! I'm an engineer!" She turned to Wei, a dangerously indignant look on her face. "I came to collect our winnings and he won't give me the money!"
Mr. Xiao had one of those dubious expressions on his face that meant he was probably about to say something stupid and get himself slapped by his sister.
"We're a team," Wei said, before things could get too ugly, "She's in charge of mechanics and I pilot." This was a common arrangement in the world of mecha fighting, especially since only metalbenders could operate mechas. It was not common, however, for girls to be involved. Especially not on the engineering side of the coin. They had enough problems getting sideways looks just because they were a couple of fifteen year olds as it was.
Mr. Xiao was giving both of them a hard look now, eyes flickering back and forth between the two of them. Wei and Meiling matched him stare for stare, and Wei was actually kind of hoping that the guy would say something, because it was pretty obvious that he would deserve the slap in the face it would get him.
He didn't say anything though (apparently he was smarter than he looked). After a moment he pulled a sack of coins out of his jacket pocket and tossed it to Wei.
"Good piloting tonight, kid," Wei cringed at being called 'kid', "Keep it up and you're going to be going places!"
Meiling snatched the sack out of Wei's hand, slid it open, and non-discreetly did a quick count of the money inside. When she was done, she glanced back up at Wei and gave a jerky nod to announce that it was all there. Mr. Xiao, who at this point was looking exhausted, shook his head and strode away from them.
"I think you offended him," Wei noted as they watched him disappear into the crowd.
Meiling didn't even try to hide her grin. "Yeah, well, he deserved it."
"Can't argue with you there."
They left through the east entrance. The system of tunnels that surrounded the fighting arena spread out for several miles under the lower ring of the city in all different directions, making the first challenge of mecha fighting just finding where the place was. The access tunnels varied in length and size, some big enough to pilot most mechas through and others barely tall enough for spectators to walk comfortably. Many of them doubled back on themselves or could end up leading you to completely different places. Some spectators complained of over-kill, but it was a necessary precaution when your business wasn't exactly legal, and while Earth Rumble patrons had only had the concerns of a steep fine at most if caught during the reign of the late Earth Queen, the city police force under the direction of Empress Kuvira was not one to offer a mere slap on the wrist when it came to breaking the law. Especially when it came to building and operating non-regulation pieces of military equipment.
The first time they had snuck out to go see a mecha fight, Wei and Meiling had gotten lost in one of the many tunnels and had only made it to the fight at all because they had run into some stragglers on their way to the match and followed them. They had gotten lost again on the way home, and nearly hadn't made it back before morning, which had almost gotten them busted. By now, one year later, they knew there way well enough. Or, at least, well enough to avoid trouble at home.
Meiling spent most of the walk tossing one of their hard won gold pieces up in the air and catching it, which was driving Wei crazy–not that he was going to tell her that. Once they broke off into one of the smaller tunnels that branched closer to the surface and they were the only two around to make noise, Meiling snatched the coin out of the air and stuffed it back in the sack. She turned to him.
"You're being really quiet for someone who just got done kicking ass. Why so glum?"
Wei rolled his eyes up so that he was watching the roof of the tunnel. "Nothing's wrong. I'm just tired is all."
The tunnel ended abruptly with a ladder leading up to a trap door. Wary of being seen even if it was the early hours after midnight, Wei cracked the door open and glanced around first. This particular door opened up into what used to be an old noodle shop near the edge of the Lower Ring–now it was mostly used as a cover for more than a few dishonest goings-on. When he was sure that everything was still and quiet as it should be he pushed the door all the way open and hauled himself up and out, pausing to help Meiling through as well.
"I know when you're lying, you know." she whispered this time when she spoke. They slid through the back door of the building quickly and silently as they could. There was no official curfew, but the police were quick to stop people they caught lurking about at night, and if anyone noticed the amount of money they had on them then they were definitely going to look suspicious.
"Maybe I don't want to talk about it," he whispered back as they walked lightly through the back streets, keeping close to the buildings.
The streets were, as expected, pretty much empty. Street lamps shined from the main roads periodically, casting the alleys in shadow, which made it easy to escape notice so long as they were quiet. The far off glow from one such lamp shone on a jumble of posters that had been pasted in one big mass of text on the wall of what looked to be a seamstress's shop. When they passed his gaze was drawn to the stark pictures of men and women in the official military uniforms, staring nobly off into the distance with the words 'Your Nation Needs You! Enlist Today!' printed boldly above. Military propaganda. Probably everyone in the picture was an earthbender. Funnily enough, pasted almost on top of it was a poster in bright yellow with the words 'End the Oppression! Join the Equalists!'. He didn't linger long enough to read whatever anti-bending message they had included below.
They walked two blocks in silence. He didn't need to turn around to know that Meiling was giving him a look; he could feel it burning into his back.
"Fine," he conceded, rubbing the back of his neck. By the spirits, it was a pain in the ass keeping secrets when you had a twin! "Uncle Bai keeps bringing it up again."
"Oh," the word fell heavy in the air. "The earthbending thing?"
They paused in talking and flattened themselves against a wall as a police satomobile drove by on the main street. Wei let out the breath he hadn't realized he had been holding. "Yeah, that thing."
They walked along quietly again for a couple of moments. They were nearly to the end of the Lower Ring now, and soon they would be in the clear
"I'm going to level with you, Wei," Meiling said, "I don't really get why you're so bothered. I mean, so he thinks you should take earthbending more seriously. So what? I mean it makes sense. Mom and Dad aren't going to get mad at you if you do. Besides, Uncle Bai just doesn't want you to waste your talent!"
Wei grimaced and was thankful that she couldn't see it in the dark. "What talent? I'm not even that good!"
This time he didn't have to imagine the annoyed look on her face much because she grabbed him on the shoulder and yanked him so that he was facing her in the dark. "Um, you do know where we just came from, right? You remember what we got done doing about half an hour ago?"
Despite himself he felt his cheeks heating up, and he was really glad for the dark. "Yeah, but any metalbender can operate a mecha these days."
Meiling snorted in a most unladylike fashion. "Oh please. I swear you are so full of–"
There was rustling from somewhere nearby, and Wei slapped his hand over Meiling's mouth to shut her up. He cringed and shot her a disgusted look when he immediately felt her tongue lick the palm of his hand. A moment passed with complete silence, and he pulled his hand away, wiping it against his pants. "Sorry, I thought I heard something. Anyway, we should keep moving…"
Two forms stepped out of the shadows at the head of the alley and blocked their path. The streetlight from the main road was at their back, so it wasn't easy to make out their features, but both were definitely male, large enough to be a problem and poised in a way that meant they definitely meant to be one.
"Hey there," the guy on the left (tall, slim, and bald as a melon) said casually, "you kids look like you're a bit lost."
"Hey to you too," Wei quipped back, even as a knot formed in the pit of his stomach, "you look like you're a bit of a nosy creep." Why does sarcasm have to be my first line of defense?
Meiling elbowed him in the ribs. "I'm so sorry about my brother," she said, using what Wei recognized as her 'I'm the good child' voice, "he doesn't have any manners. We actually don't live too far from here and were just getting home. We're already late, you see, and our father tends to come looking for us if he gets worried."
It was a pretty good play, for the situation, and Meiling was pulling it off well with that perfect innocent expression of hers. However, Wei had a bad feeling that they weren't going to be getting out of this one so easily.
"You hear that, Qiang?" Baldy said to his pal, who made up for what he lacked in height with pure girth that Wei didn't doubt was all muscle. "They said they don't need our help!"
'Qiang' made a scoffing sound, "Seems strange to me how two rich kids would know their way around the Lower Ring at night if you ask me."
"Rich kids!" Wei said, "That's ridiculous! In what way to be look like we come from money?"
It was hard to see, but the raised-eyebrow-look of skepticism that both men were giving them came across pretty clear anyway. It was a fact that the Yuan family was indeed not wealthy. Their father, Ling Yuan, was born into a Middle Ring family and owned a restaurant with their mother, Li Hua, as part of the upper-merchant class. Wei and Meiling had been raised in the middle ring, where their family had just enough extra money to send both them and their older brother to a good school, and while most people in the Earth Empire would still never consider them anywhere near rich, compared to a significant portion of the Lower Ring they might as well have been.
Wei wasn't stupid. For the most part it was easy enough for Meiling and him to slip on some less-nice clothes and sneak out in the middle of the night without too much attention being drawn to them, but when it came right down to it, anyone who had practice observing people could tell that the two of them were on the wrong end of town. They hadn't been raised in the Lower Ring, and a year of sneaking out once a month wasn't enough to make them feel or look any less out of their natural environment, and while their clothes might not have looked nice that didn't cover up the fact that they were free of wear and tear and still looked almost as new as the day they had been bought.
"To be fair," Wei tried, "we're technically middle-class."
"Look, kid," Baldy said, "We don't want any trouble, okay? So how about you just hand over whatever you've got on you and we call it a night?"
Any other night Wei probably would have just told Meiling to give up the money, because it really probably wasn't worth it. Tonight however was the night that they had finally, finally made it all the way and he had been feeling pretty good about that. In a deep primal sense, this wasn't just money they had won–it was accomplishment. And Wei was nothing if not prideful. And besides, they had plans for this money, for once.
"What, you're robbing us and you're the ones who don't want trouble?" Wei said, skepticism dripping from his words. "If you're that concerned about it then screw off and leave us alone."
Meiling was giving him that look, like 'you are a total idiot and your sarcasm is going to get us killed', but, well, he was pretty used to that look anyway.
Baldy sighed dramatically, "Has anyone ever told you that you're obnoxious? Well, anyway, don't say that I didn't give you a chance."
Wei had kind of assumed that at least one of their would-be-robbers was an earthbender when neither of them pulled a weapon, so it didn't come as much of a surprise when Qiang slid into an opening stance and suddenly the rocky ground reached up to cover their feet and trap them in place. Wei managed to twist his right foot out of the trap before it was too late and stomp it into the solid ground, sending a spike of rock shooting towards their attackers. It wasn't his most graceful of moments, and the other earthbender ducked under the blow and finally succeeded in trapping his other foot. Wei had just cast out his senses searching for anything metal within bending distance when Meiling let out a startled squeak.
"Um, Wei," she said. She sounded nervous, which was not a good sign.
"Little busy here," Wei said. Ah, good, there was a bucket on the alley ground not too far behind them with a metal handle; maybe he could get close enough to bend it into a weapon…
"The roofs, Wei," Meiling said, and yeah, she definitely freaked out.
What? He followed her gaze up to the rooftops, first the one on their right, then the one of their left. On each one stood another thief who then almost immediately hopped down into the alley behind them, leaving them surrounded.
"Give it up, kid," Baldy was talking again, a smug smile on his face. "I don't know how good you are with earthbending, but you can't take on all of us."
That was painfully true. Growing up in a family of all non-benders except for himself had not exactly yielded a deep interest in mastering his element. Even if he hadn't only been taking sporadic lessons with his uncle for seven years, Wei still probably wouldn't be close to mastering earthbending enough to take on four people, most of whom were probably also earthbenders.
This, Wei thought sourly, is one of those times that it would actually be nice to have the cops around. Well, if he was going down, he wasn't going down without at least putting up a fight first.
His feet were immobilized, but his hands were still free. Thinking fast, Wei bent backwards and slammed his hand into the ground. The bucket he had located earlier came rolling towards him as a chunk of earth underneath it came shooting upright abruptly. Wei snatched the bucket and righted himself. In a single instant, Wei bent the metal handle on the bucket into a thin, sharpened shaft and shot it towards Baldy's face, right as the guys from the roof launched towards him. Baldy ducked to the side and the projectile only clipped his ear. Before he could see any more, the two guys had tackled Wei and he went down hard, the earth retracting from his feet so that he fell flat on his ass in the dirt.
Everything hurt. There were two fully grown men holding him down, and his back was not thanking him for the impact on the ground. Off to his side, Meiling was watching him, eyes scared, but she was still standing. Wei tried to smile to reassure her that he was all right, but it came out as more of a grimace. She looked away from him, instead focusing her attention on Baldy. At her side, her fists were clenched and shaking ever so slightly.
"Look, you can have our money." She said. Unlike her hands, her voice did not shake. "Just let me and my idiot brother go."
Even in times of crisis she makes time to insult me, Wei thought, mostly because he was trying to focus on being indignant at this whole thing instead of being terrified. Spirits, we are so screwed.
Baldy walked over the Meiling, who was still immobilized, and thoughtfully stroked his chin. "What, after your brother attacked me and my men unprovoked?"
'Unprovoked' my ass! It was a miracle that he forced himself not to actually say the words out loud.
"What's a sweet thing like you doing in the Lower Ring anyway?" Baldy asked in a sickeningly sweet voice. Slowly, he reached out and stroked a hand across Meiling's cheek.
Stone-faced, Meiling backhanded the guy, quick as a viperbat.
Baldy came back up with an angry red mark on his cheek and a look that could kill. "Son of a wolfbat," he spat, yanking Meiling's wrist and twisting it up in the air. "You bitch."
Wei, who had been on the receiving end of his fair share of playground bullying, was no stranger to feeling helpless and frustrated. But when a small sound of pain escaped Meiling's lips as her arm was yanked in an awkward angle, Wei was not quite sure of the feeling that suddenly consumed him.
Wei didn't really get angry. Not in the sense that most people lost their tempers, anyway. He got irritated, which usually resulted in dripping sarcasm. He got indignant, which ended up with him going off on self-righteous rants for short bursts. On occasions, he seethed, which mostly gave way to scathing looks and passive aggressive comments. But most of the time, Wei wasn't the type to blow up at people or really even get angry.
So, to his complete credit, what happened next was in no way something he could have predicted or be held accountable for. Because, in all honesty, the person least equipped to deal with the unholy wrath of Wei Yuan was in fact Wei Yuan.
Something in Wei's gut boiled as a red haze of anger crept over his vision, and Wei didn't know what this feeling was, just that, somehow, he could use this to hurt the people who were hurting him and his family. The rush of heat in his stomach turned into rush of energy through his body, and the man who had been holding down his wrists screamed as heatseared from his fingertips, lighting up the alleyway in a flickering orange glow.
Wei didn't stop to contemplate this. The second his hands were free he sat up sharply and swept his hand in a wide motion in front of him, flames trailing his fingers and wreaking havoc upon the men before him.
Cries of surprise and agony mingled in the air with the smell of burnt hair and flesh, and where four men had stood around them only the bald man remained, standing frozen in shock where the others had been smart enough to flee from.
"Great Spirits of the earth," the bald man said, voice shaking.
Wei was on his feet somehow. He didn't remember standing up. "Leave." he snarled, voice sounding raw and strange to his own ears.
Baldy turned and fled, nearly running headlong into a fence post as he rounded the corner onto the main street.
"Wei?" Meiling said. For some reason her voice sounded far away. "Are you…what…"
Wei started down at his hands. "Well," he said, "that was weird."
He fell to his knees and puked all over the alley floor.
He dreamed of a far off place, where lights danced in the night sky and there was nothing but snow for as far as the eye could see. He knew somehow that there was a village in the distance behind him where warm fires and smiling faces would greet him, but for some reason he couldn't turn back. And so he walked onward through the endless ice.
In the morning, Wei woke up in his bedroom (Middle Ring, Ba Sing Se, home) feeling cold and empty inside, and for a delirious moment, he was actually able to forget.
Breakfast at the Yuan household was nothing spectacular. Ling Yuan was usually up before the sun and already working on his third cup of tea by the time Wei and Meiling could be roused out of bed to get ready for school. Their mother, Li Hua, was up and alternating between cooking breakfast and yelling at Cheng to get out of bed. Someone must have turned on the radio because the slightly staticky sounds of smooth jazz were drifting in from the sitting room.
For the first time since they were thirteen Meiling was already at the table when Wei managed to shuffle his way to a chair, still half blinded by sleep but somehow miraculously already dressed in his school uniform. Usually it took at least another fifteen minutes of messing with her hair and make-up before the girl was willing to present herself.
Mom was just sliding a dish in front of him when Wei realized what his sister was up to.
"So, Dad," Meiling said casually, "You studied history at Ba Sing Se University, right?"
Their father made a non-committing sound from behind his cup, but he glanced up, so he was probably paying attention.
"I was just wondering…" she was using her 'carefully disinterested' voice now, and that was a dangerous voice indeed. "What was the last avatar like?"
Wei choked and barely managed to keep from spraying hot tea all over the table. Next to him Cheng was giving him a weird look.
What, by Kyoshi's toenails, did she think she was doing?
Their father set his cup down and stroked his chin thoughtfully. "Well, that wasn't exactly my primary area of study, though the Avatar is often the center of great historical events. While there is a wealth of information on many past avatars, Avatar Korra was relatively young when she died, and much about of her life is unknown to us."
"Right," Meiling said, clearly ignoring every single 'what-are-you-doing' face that Wei was sending her, "But she was a powerful bender, right?"
"All avatars are powerful benders, Mei," Cheng cut in, and, oh no, his chin was raised in that superior expression that he liked to wear when talking to them ever since he had started attending university. "That's why they feel they can do whatever they want and change whatever they want while we normal peopleget stuck dealing with the consequences. Its just one of the many arrogances of benders." he glanced lazily in Wei's direction. "No offense."
"None taken," Wei said, feeling pretty offended. There were certain downsides to living in a family that was predominately Equalist. Even though Mom and Dad always tried to make a point that they didn't care that they didn't love him any less since he was a bender, it was still awkward whenever the topic came up. Especially now, if he remembered last night correctly which–nope, not thinking about it. He definitely did not want to think about it.
Meiling, apparently, was not on the same page. "But Avatar Korra didn't die that long ago, right?"
"Fifteen years ago, at the battle of Republic City, yes," Ling Yuan admitted, "though the exact details are unknown."
"I do hope that you're not talking politics at my table," their mother said lightly as she strode into the room with another dish and took her seat at the table. Despite her tone there was an edge of steel to her gaze. It was a general rule that they didn't discuss certain topics over meals.
"All historical, my dear," their father said. To Meiling he remarked, "These matters are not widely talked about, you understand, and while curiosity is admirable you must be careful where you pry."
Meiling stuck her lip out in a pout. "But it's interesting!"
Their father raised an eyebrow, "Why all the interest, all of the sudden?"
"School project," Wei said before Meiling could say anything stupid. Judging by the look she was giving him, she was not happy about the intervention. "And we're not allowed to get outside help."
Their father furrowed his brow disapprovingly. Yeah, his sister was going to kill him.
To her credit, though, she almost gave it up right there. But Meiling Yuan was not one to give up on a mission easily. And Wei didn't doubt that in her head she saw this as a mission.
"The last avatar died fifteen years ago?" she said. She was looking at Wei.
A silence descended over the table that felt nearly deafening to Wei as his stomach churned and sweat beaded on his forehead.
The silence was broken by a snorting laugh from Cheng. "Oh, spirits, Mei, I know what you're thinking," Wei's heart rate skyrocketed. "You know you can't be the avatar! You're not even a bender!"
Across the table Meiling did an impressive sputtering act. Mom and Dad, both looking equally amused, had gone back to eating their breakfast. Wei let out a soft sigh of relief.
Meiling recovered quickly. "Fair enough…but what about Wei?"
Are you trying to kill me? He couldn't ask out loud, but he was pretty sure she understood from the look of despair that was probably written all over his face.
Cheng was apparently making himself uncharacteristically useful this morning. "Don't be dumb. The Avatar can bend all four elements. Wei just got stuck with earthbending."
Meiling opened her mouth to offer a retort, but their father thankfully broke in with "Shouldn't you all be getting off to school before you're late?"
In the ensuing scramble to get out the door, the topic was mercifully dropped.
"I'm curious," Wei said once the house was out of sight. "What exactly are you trying to accomplish. Other than making me prematurely gray."
Instead of stopping or slowing down, Meiling turned around mid-stride and faced him while walking backwards.
"You know, for someone who was going all Phoenix King on some bullies less than twelve hours ago you're acting very disinterested," she said, which was not any kind of answer.
Wei glanced around uneasily, but they were in a part of the Middle Ring by now where the houses had tapered off, and it was mostly empty road between them and the academy. There was no one around to hear them.
He stared up at the sky, as if he could pick the right words out of the clouds. "I'm not disinterested," he said slowly. "I flat out don't want to know."
Meiling stopped, very nearly causing a collision. "You don't want to know." her tone was flat.
There was that uncomfortable feeling in his stomach again, like he was either going to throw up or pass out. "Look Mei, last night was…weird. There was fighting, confusion, there could have been spirits messing around for all we know! What I'm saying is, anything could have happened in that alley! And frankly, I'd rather not spend time worrying over what was obviously some grand universal conspiracy, trickery, or fluke, when I'm having enough trouble just getting through school as it is."
Suddenly Meiling was nose to nose with him, grabbing the collar of his uniform in a way that made breathing uncomfortable. "Let me get this straight. You firebend four back alley thugs into submission in the middle of the night after having the snot beaten out of you and that's a 'fluke'?"
He made wheezing noise, and she let go of his shirt. "It was an accident!"
"Spirits, Wei! Who is the only person in the world who can accidentally bend an entirely new element?"
"Toph Beifong invented metalbending under duress."
She gave an annoyed little huff. "That's completely different. Why are you so opposed to this anyway? I mean would it really be that bad if you are the–"
"Yes!" Wei said before she could actually say the word out loud. "Yes it would be that bad, Mei! Do you have any idea the sorts of things that happen to…people like that? Korra didn't even live to see thirty, and do you even know the rumors about how she died? I don't want to know the details!"
"So one person had bad luck–"
"Aang was frozen for one hundred years." Wei deadpanned. "And then he woke up to find out all his people had been massacred. Roku was pretty much murdered. By his best friend." He ran a hand through the hair on the back of his head. "Forgive me if I don't exactly feel inclined to play hero to a world that, oh by the way, hates our guts currently."
Meiling scowled, turned back around and started walking again, tugging at one of her braids in irritation. All she said, though, was "Come on, Dummy, we're going to be late."
They weren't late, though Professor Yao gave them a stern look when they stepped into class seconds before the bell. Class was nothing spectacular, though Wei was worried that Meiling was going to make just as much of a fuss as she did at breakfast. Thankfully, though, history class passed with blissful silence from his twin. In fact, the day actually went suspiciously normal given that Wei spent it feeling as if someone had pulled a rug out from underneath the foundations of his life.
(Because he had lied to Mei about being disinterested– because underneath all the usual haze of facts being fed to him all he could think about was the sudden rush of heat to his finger tips and the smell of burnt hair and that little whisper of something in the back of his mind that told him that he could do it again and it would be easy.)
The only deviance from the usual was when Hui Zhang, their faithful friend since forever, walked in late, right in the middle of their lesson on the cruel reign of the pre-empire monarchy. Whispered words were exchanged with the teacher, and he took his seat behind Wei.
"Why so late?" Wei chanced whispering when the Professor turned around to make note of something on the map in the front.
"Remember how I said we were worried about paying for my mom's treatment?" Hui whispered, leaning forward so that he could be heard by both the twins sitting side by side.
"Yeah, of course," it was no secret the Mrs. Zhang suffered from recurring sickness of the lungs.
There was quiet as Professor Yao turned back around, describing in what was probably unnecessary detail the carnage of the riots following the murder of the 53rd Earth Queen. After a moment, he turned back around and Hui leaned forward again.
"Well, this morning, Dad discovered that someone had broken in through one of our windows and been in our sitting area."
"What!" Wei said, just a little too loudly, and coughed to try and cover it up as Professor Yao glanced over his shoulder suspiciously before launching back into his explanation.
"They didn't steal anything, as far as we can tell," Hui said quickly. "They left a bag on the table that was full of money."
"Wow," Meiling said, "that's very strange."
"I know!" Hui said, "but the weirdest thing is, whoever it was left a note too. It said that the money was a donation and the donor wished to remain anonymous." The excitement in his voice was barely contained at this point. "It was more than enough money to cover the initial costs for medicine, and Dad says that we should be able to handle everything else! It's like a gift from the Great Spirits!"
"Yeah," Meiling said, waggling an eyebrow at Wei in a gesture Hui couldn't see from his angle. "It sure sounds like it."
Professor Yao seemed to suspect them of trouble, because he stayed more attentive for the rest of class. When he dropped his chalk and had to take a second to pick it up, Wei scribbled out a note and flicked it onto Meiling's desk.
You broke into their house? He wrote. REALLY?!
A couple moments later a note dropped on his desk in return.
Well I couldn't leave it on the doorstep for anybody to take! And you weren't exactly there to offer any brilliant ideas!
That was, unfortunately, true. The night previous, after having finally been scraped off of the alley floor in a woozy state by Meiling, the two of them had hurried out of the Lower Ring. The journey itself was a bit of a haze, but Wei did recall Meiling dropping him off at home and telling him to get to bed before he passed out and then heading off to drop off their prize money. If he had been in a better mental state he would have never let her go alone, but the Middle Ring was a safer place than the Lower, and he hadn't been up for arguing.
How are you alive and still not in prison? He wrote back, cramming the other note in his pocket so that no one else would accidentally see it.
He wasn't quite sure how he didn't set the note he got back on fire. As it was he tore it into fourths and shoved the pieces in his pocket with the other note.
Because my brother is the avatar.
For as big a deal as Meiling was making about the whole affair, the week that followed started off…quiet. She didn't drop the subject–Wei hadn't thought she would. But after the weekend came and passed and nothing else especially strange had happened apart from wandering spirits following them home (which had been a pretty regular occurrence anyway), she stopped prying him so hard.
"Look Wei," she had said finally, when she realized he wasn't going to open up about the topic, "Either you're the avatar–which, by the way, fits perfectly with both the pattern of elements and the timing of the reincarnation cycle–or you're the world's first known dual bender and are a freak of nature that fits nowhere in modern society. Either way, you're my brother and I'm not going to abandon you just because you're having an identity crisis."
He hadn't been sure what exactly to say to that, but was grateful for the sentiment nonetheless.
The calm didn't last.
Three days into the week Wei got frustrated with his classical literature assignment (how by Oma and Shu was he supposed to figure out poetic verses of the northern gurus–he was a fifteen year old for spirits' sakes, wasn't this the teacher's job?) and somehow managed to set his essay and the entire desk on fire. Their parents hadn't been home, and luckily Cheng didn't pay much attention to what went on outside of his own room. Meiling had helped him put out the fire and clean up the mess. They hadn't been sure how to explain the char marks on the desk, so Wei was relying on using his vast array of books to hide them until they could think of something less impossible than the truth.
Four days into the week Meiling took a break from giving him his space and suggested (while waving the charred remains of his essay–why did she even still have that?) that, whatever he believed about how he was suddenly a firebender, he should at least learn how to control it a little. Still seething from the day before, he told her exactly what she could do with her suggestions in the future.
Five days into the week Wei freaked out when a spiderwasp flew into his face on the way to school and incinerated not only the bug but also a patch of well-manicured grass from the academy's far lawn. Most of the staff was still baffled about what possibly could have caused the damage.
On the sixth day, he sneezed and set the curtains in the living room ablaze. Li Hua Yuan was beside herself for obviously leaving one of her scented candles lit too close to the window.
By the time the weekend had rolled around again, Wei woke up before the sun to find Meiling standing by his bed with a look on her face that could make wolfbats cringe.
"Come on Dummy," she said, "We've got work to do."
It was common knowledge these days that Ba Sing Se was as riddled with tunnels as a buzzardwasp nest. After the end of Hundred Year War when the Dai Li had been stripped of their more egregious roles and refocused as more of the empress's private spies and secret service, the tunnels fell widely out of use. With the rise of the Earth Empire, many enterprising commoners had gotten the idea to hire some earthbenders and make use of the mostly unmonitored space, which was one the reason that mecha fighting had grown as big as it had. In an effort to detach themselves from the more unsavory end of society, a group of earthbending nobles and merchants had gone through a whole bunch of effort to close up most of the tunnels connecting the Middle and Upper Rings.
While most of the tunnel networks were gone from the Middle Ring now, when the twins had been twelve Meiling had gotten the bright idea that Wei could build their own cavern beneath the house so that he could practice earthbending without disrupting the neighbors or their parents' company (both of which included a large number of Equalists). A year later the cavern turned out to be an even better place to work on building a fighting mecha in their spare time.
They hadn't used the cavern for much since they had started being able to afford their own hanger at the fighting ring and since Wei had been falling out of practice with practical earthbending in favor of metalbending. Today, it looked like the old place was going to serve a new purpose that neither of them had certainly ever guessed before.
"Home sweet hole!" Meiling chirped, her voice echoing back at them.
The place was about several stories tall and after some initial expansion had been plenty big enough to house the mecha suit and still leave enough room to get in some good bending practice. They had even been able to unearth enough underground crystals to keep the place lit with a steady green glow.
"Alright," she said, sliding down against the wall and sitting cross legged on the ground. "Let's see some firebending."
"It's not like I can just turn it off and on," Wei protested, still trying to rub the sleep from his eyes.
"Of course you can turn it on and off," she scoffed. "You've done nothing this week but prove you can turn it on and off. You just suck at controlling when."
"Thanks Mei, that helps a lot," he said sarcastically. "Have any other great advice?"
"Sure do!" she pointed to the opposite end of the cavern. "Do it that direction. I don't feel like getting deep fried."
There were about ten good minutes during which Wei threw his hands out in front of him a couple of times and tried to will fire to go shooting out of his fingers. At one point he got a little puff of smoke. Other than that: nothing.
"Try getting angry about it!" Mei suggested, "It worked with the bandits!"
It made sense in theory. If only Wei didn't suck so incredibly at anything and everything feelings related. He tried to recall what he had felt in that alley and emulate it, but while the memories were still fresh, he just couldn't recreate the anger that had been there. He punched the air a couple of times anyway, willing the feeling to come back to him with movement, but nothing happened except his fists sliding through empty air.
The next hour progressed in a similar fashion during which he would lash out at some invisible opponent that was not there and Meiling would offer whatever advice she could think of as a nonbender. Maybe it was because he wasn't emotionally involved? Meiling tried to irritate him with jibes and insults. Was he approaching this too much like an earthbender? He tried loosening up his stances and try different attacks than he was used to, but they had never actually seen anyone firebend before, so there was no model to emulate. Maybe he was thinking too hard about it? He tried to clear his mind, but didn't have much success. All he knew was that the longer that they went at this, the more frustrated it was making him.
"This is stupid!" he said finally, sliding to the ground. "I don't even want to bea firebender! What good would it even do?"
"Well, you wouldn't accidentally set the house on fire during allergy season." Meiling pointed out.
Wei sighed and put his head in his hands. "Other than that, obviously. I mean, we're in the heart of the Earth Empire! There aren't any other firebenders around for miles! And its not like I can do anything with it unless we want the Dai Li knocking on our door!"
Meiling didn't respond immediately, which was unusual for her. Then, carefully: "Have you even considered talking to Mom and Dad?"
Wei's head shot up. "Are you insane!"
"I'll take that as a no," she sighed. He barely heard her.
"Yeah, Mei, let me just tell our Equalist parents that I'm the–that I can firebend! Two elements! That's–that's, like, twice the disappointment!"
Meiling didn't come back with a sharp retort right away, so he just let the words continue to fall from his tongue. "I mean, this whole thing doesn't make any sense! I can't be a firebender–I'm barely even an earthbender! You heard Cheng last week–he's got the right of it!" He was breathing hard in between words, and his hands were shaking. "I can't be the Avatar, Mei! I can't even get one element right, not to mention three more!"
He had said it now, for the first time. It hung in the air and dispersed all other sounds, leaving only silence in its wake. After a moment, he heard her get to her feet and then footsteps on the hard stone. A moment later, Meiling's arms were wrapped around him loosely from behind in one of those awkward sibling hugs.
"Deep breaths," she whispered, and he did his best to obey. "Everything will work itself out."
A dry laugh escaped his throat. "How? I'm not cut out for this type of thing! I'm not good at any of this. Everyone makes a big deal about how the avatar," he nearly choked on the word, "is supposed to fix everything." He stared down at his shaking hands and grimaced. "What a disappointment."
Meiling tightened her hold slightly "You are not" she whispered, "a disappointment." She murmured something else that he barely heard with her face smushed into his back. He wasn't sure he was supposed to. "That's always been my job."
He reached back and put a hand on her shoulder. They called it quits for the day.
It was the first day of the second week. Wei actually promised to keep at trying to control his firebending, but even with that Meiling was quieter on the topic than before, which was somehow even worse than her badgermoling him about it. It didn't help that the night before they had decided to brave another trip back to the Lower Ring so that they could run diagnostics on their mecha and determine how much needed to be fixed before their next match next month. Meiling was still seething about the damage that the shoulder had taken and how much work it was going to fix.
With the weekend still in full swing, the Yuan twins were coerced into helping out at their parent's restaurant, the Golden Lotus, during rush hour, which was good because then Wei didn't have to think as long as his hands were busy bussing tables while Meiling helped their mother in the kitchen and Cheng helped their father take customers' orders.
The lull between the lunch and dinner crowd hit around late afternoon, and Wei was told to sit down and take a break right as Uncle Bai walked in the front door, as he was want to do when he got off his mid-day shift on the city police force.
"Hey kid," he said, taking notice of him before Wei could decide whether he wanted to hide in the back or not. He plopped down in the seat across from him before he could make a break for it, in any case.
Bai Yuan was a gopherbear of a man. Despite being Ling Yuan's brother, he was thick and well muscled where Ling was tall and slim, and he had the kind of facial hair that could make a buffaloyak jealous while Wei's father had always maintained a clean-shaven appearance. In a way, Uncle Bai look exactly how Wei imagined the ideal earthbender would: strong, unyielding, and always like he was a heartbeat away from punching a rock in your face.
"It's been a while," Wei said awkwardly, and then mentally kicked himself.
"It has," Uncle Bai agreed, leaning back in his chair. "It wouldn't have been nearly so long if you had bothered to show up to your lesson this past week."
Wei briefly considered letting the ground split open and swallow him then and there, but he would probably mess it up and smother himself in the process. Of course then the whole firebending fiasco wouldn't be his problem any more and then…no, he was not going to continue that train of thought.
"I, uh, was kind of having a rough day." he said instead. 'Rough day' meaning accidentally setting the school's lawn on fire, but his uncle didn't need to know that.
"So I've heard." Upon noticing Wei's confused expression he added, "Your father and I have been talking. He says that you've been…distracted recently."
Typical, Dad notices everything. Well, everything that wasn't strictly bending related anyway. He seemed to make an effort to not get involved in that other than occasional questions about how lessons were going.
Uncle Bai sighed, "Look Wei, I'm not going to pry into your life. You're almost a man now, and your father and I both trust you to take responsibility for your own actions. But if there's ever something you want to talk about…"
"Thanks, Uncle Bai," Wei said, genuinely glad, and for a brief moment he was really tempted. The guy was family after all, and if anyone was likely to not elephantrat him out, it was him. But then, the middle of his parents' restaurant during the middle of the day probably wasn't the best time or place for telling secrets. Maybe some other time, once he had this firebending thing a little closer to being figured out. "But I think I've got to figure this one out on my own for now."
His uncle nodded in understanding. "I am curious though," he said after a moment, "is there a girl involved?"
Wei, who had been leaning back in his chair, nearly lost his balance and toppled over backwards. "Wh–No! Why would that even…"
Uncle Bai threw his hands up it surrender, but he was chuckling. "Alright, alright I won't ask anymore. Oh, and your face is red, kid."
Wei felt heat in his cheeks and cursed the spirits (not for the first time) that he blushed at stupid things.
"I think I'm going to go get some air," he muttered. He tried to make as subtle an escape out of it as he could, even though he could still hear his uncle laughing as he stepped out the side door and headed towards the back.
There was a ladder in the back that led up to the roof. Mom had warned him and Meiling off of hanging out up there on multiple occasions, but sometimes it was just really nice to feel the sun on his face and get out of the view of the general populous.
(Meiling used to tell him that climbing to high places was not very earthbender-like of him and that maybe he should have been an airbender. It hadn't been funny then, and it sure as Koh was even less funny now.)
He sat with his feet dangling over the edge of the roof above one of the side streets that ran beside the building and lied back. He let his eyes close after a while–why not? He still had a good fifteen minutes before someone was likely to come looking for him, and it was one of those perfect, late spring days when it was just warm enough and there wasn't a cloud in the sky.
There was a sudden weight on his chest and his eyes snapped open. When he saw the spirit sitting on top of him he debated closing them again and pretending nothing was there.
Spirits were a common annoyance in Ba Sing Se. Ever since the spirit portals had been opened almost two decades ago all of the nations had been facing their own problems with adjusting to their presence in the human world. While the Water Tribes took to thing with relative ease having lived in the more spiritually sensitive areas of the world anyway and the Fire Nation took to the problem with their usual innovativeness, the Illustrious Earth Empire…struggled in many places. And while many of the smaller provinces had figured out that if you gave spirits their respectful distance and didn't do anything special to inspire their curiosity or make them upset it was easy enough to coexist, it was often hard for a large and ancient city that was as set in its ways as Ba Sing Se to adapt and make room for creatures that by all historical accounts did not belong. There was something about the austerity of the city that seemed to agitate spirits and make them prone to mischief.
Unfortunately, for reasons that were only just beginning to become clear to Wei, the Yuan twins attracted spirit mischief. While most of the habitants of the Middle Ring might go for several days without seeing hide nor hair of spirit creatures, Wei and Meiling had a tendency to run into them regularly. When they were children their mother had seen it as a good omen, until a four-year-old Meiling had nearly followed a dragonflybunny spirit into the neighbors' pond. Meiling continued to find the spirits' attention delightful and would occasionally try to bring them home as pets as if they were stray cats, much to their parents' displeasure.
Wei didn't have time for mischief, nor did he have the energy today. The current spirit perched on his chest looked like some sort of cross between a jackalope and a common frog, and when he tried to shoo it away it hopped up and down on his chest, knocking the breath out of him a little.
"Go away!" Wei hissed. The thing finally hopped back down onto the roof as he sat up, but it didn't leave. It just stood there, staring up at him with bulging amphibian eyes, expectant.
"What do you want?" He tried asking. Not all spirits talked, but some did, so it was worth a try most of the time.
More silent staring. When Wei made to get up, though, it reached out and grabbed his sleeve with its transparent paw. Well, great.
It made sense, he supposed, now that the whole Avatar thing had come out. Of course spirits would be bothering him–if they were right he was supposed to be the Spirit Bridge. Avatar responsibilities and all that. This was not helping his mounting headache.
"Shouldn't you be off doing, oh, I don't know, whatever it is you guys do when no one's watching?"
The spirit tugged on his sleeve again, hopped a couple of paces across the roof, and then paused, looking back a him insistently.
"Fine," he sighed. I really can't catch a break today. "I'll follow you." Carefully, he got to his feet and let the thing lead him to the opposite side of the roof.
The spirit stopped and jerked its head towards what appeared to be a hole where one of the roofing tiles had come loose and slid out of place, leaving a gap between the rest of the tiles and the foundation of the roof itself.
"If you think that I'm sticking my hand in there, you've got another thing coming," Wei told the spirit flatly. It cocked its antlered head at him, imploring. Sighing he crouched down and peered into the hole.
"I don't see anything," he said after a while, not that he was sure what it was he was supposed to be seeing anyway. He recalled Uncle Bai saying once that the will of spirits was mysterious and hard for humans to comprehend. Wei usually took that to mean that they were conniving little shits who liked to waste people's time.
Cautiously, he leaned in a little closer, deciding that if he didn't find anything then he was turning around and going back inside, possible Spirit Bridge duties be damned.
As his face inched closer the world suddenly got colder, and he heard a deep growling sound that made every hair on the back of his neck stand straight up. The jackalope-frog spirit bounced up and down in agitation and then made a beeline to get behind Wei. Before he could process what had caused the change, a black thing darted out of the darkness and shot right at his head. In the instant that it was out in the open, Wei processed a couple of things: glowing red eyes, golden spark shooting off of a quivering form that seemed to change shapes as it moved. Angry. Very, very angry.
He didn't think. He shot up hands between himself and that hateful thing that wanted to eat his face, and fire burned.
There was a sound like metal scraping against glass and then the hateful spirit disappeared, retreating into the spirit realm. Flames danced in the air a moment longer before dying out into sparks on the tiles beneath his feet.
Something is very wrong here, he thought.
That's one way to learn how to firebend, he thought.
Spirits, I hope no one saw that, he thought. Then he worried.
Three buildings over, two forms in the shadows sat staring from under wide brimmed hats with disbelieving eyes.
Nothing happened that evening. The restaurant closed two hours after sunset as usual and they all walked home as a family, chatting about the day and making careless conversation. Uncle Bai joined them for dinner and left close to midnight, and not once did he and their father get into a disagreement about politics. No strangers showed up at the door. There were no spirits found meddling about the house in dark corners. He wasn't sure which he had been expecting.
By the time Wei went to bed he was beginning to relax. He didn't tell Meiling about anything that had happened–it could wait until tomorrow during the walk to school when there would be no extra ears to hear them. Or maybe the next day would be better. Maybe he would be less shaken by then.
(Because he didn't know a lot about spirits, but he knew that there had been something deeply wrong with that one hiding in the roof. Wrong enough to make him want to earthbend himself a nice deep hole in the earth and hide there for a while.)
He had a weird dream again that night. This time there was no ice or snow but a city he had never seen before with tall metal buildings that looked much newer than anything found in Ba Sing Se. Faces flashed before his mind's eye a couple of times, but he didn't recognize them. Then there was a blinding flash of light and a noise like the world was collapsing in on itself, and he felt that cold, awful feeling again that he had on the roof before waking up in his bed, covered in sweat.
In the morning nothing unusual happened. Still no spirits and still no one claiming to have seen a boy firebending on a rooftop. They ate breakfast and went to school, and he relaxed, starting to feel like everything was going to be all right for the first time in over a week.
Two hours into classes Wei turned around to respond to some sarcastic comment Hui had made, and when he turned around two men were standing in the front of the classroom talking to their teacher in hushed tones. They were both fairly tall and wore black robes with gold trimmed sleeves. Their hair was tied back in braids, their eyes barely visible under wide brimmed hats that they had conspicuously not removed even though they were inside.
Dai Li. Wei's blood froze, and all of his good feelings turned to dust.
Professor Yao nodded at something they said, and pointed right at Wei. He sunk down in his chair, but the two agents had already looked his way and spotted him.
"Wei?" Meiling whispered, just now noticing his distress. She glanced back and forth between him and the Dai Li, and her eyes widened. Her mouth turned down in a hard, worried frown and she opened her mouth to speak, but he didn't get a chance to hear whatever it was she was going to say.
"Wei Yuan?" One of the agents said, standing right in front of his desk. The class was staring at him. The whole world was staring at him, if felt like.
"Sir?" A single syllable and his voice still managed to crack on it like he was thirteen years old. There weren't many ways this could get worse.
"You're going to have to come with us."
"Um," he said, because his mind was reeling and not currently working properly, "in the middle of class?" Someone in the back snickered, and if Professor Yao hadn't been the glowing picture of proper etiquette Wei was pretty sure he would have done a most excellent facepalm.
"Yes, now, Wei," their teacher said (his face was pale, and he was giving him a look of such pity that Wei thought he was going to puke), "I'll let you make up the assignment whenever you get back."
Wei got to his feet, mostly because he wasn't sure what else to do. This was bad–so, so, so very much bad. One did not usually just come back after walking away with the Dai Li.
On numb legs he followed the Dai Li agents to the front of the room and towards the door. Meiling looked like she was about to come over the desk after him, but he shook his head at her subtly as he passed and she sat back, staring at him with an unreadable expression.
Their footsteps echoed down the hallway behind them as they left, which was even worse than silence would have been–more final somehow.
"May I ask where we're going?" He chanced once he found his voice again.
"To the Imperial Palace." The agent on his left said, and Wei's blood froze. "You've been summoned for an audience with the Great Uniter."