This story has been in my head for some time now. I think ever since my friend Angelique said, "Hey, we should watch Avatar!" Which we did. All of Season One (which she had on DVD) and half of Season Two (which she had taped) in probably less than a week, knowing us. I was hooked. (Fear not, I avenged myself with Firefly and Serenity.) And before long, we were cooking up this story about a modern-day waterbender named Kaiya and her roommate Hotaru. First it was an RPG, then it was a comic, now it is a straight-up fanfiction, in the hopes that I will actually finish it this time. Here's hoping.

Please Note: This is not a retelling of the Avatar story. These are (so far) all original characters, even though a few might seem awfully familiar. Also, this is not an alternate universe. Everything that happened in the show, happened here. Just, you know, 2000 years ago. And, of course, I don't own Avatar. I just have no life and this is what seems fun to me this week. Enjoy!

Chapter One: The Girl from California

"Saito, room one-twenty-three, I believe," a young woman with long, wavy brown hair told the resident assistant at the long table set up in the lobby. So, she thought, this is college. Nothing exciting so far.

"Kaiya?" the RA asked. She nodded. "Well, here's your keys, and a free cup from the student life board, and a Pizza Palace menu, and a key chain ID-holder whistle…" The RA handed Kaiya a pile of junk, as if he knew she would never, ever use this stuff. Well, maybe she'd use the pizza menu. "Why don't you go get yourself settled a bit, and, uh, meet your roommate, and I'll be by to check on you in a few minutes?" A crowd was forming behind the girl, and the RA wanted to get to the rest of them.

"Sure thing," Kaiya said brightly. She turned and started to walk away. Then she realized, "Hey, uh, which way is it?" The RA pointed distractedly as a set of twins came up to his section of folding table. "Right. Okay," Kaiya muttered to herself, setting off down the hall.

As she side-stepped a mushroom chair that someone had set in the hallway, Kaiya was thankful that her belongings consisted of a body-sized duffle bad and a cardboard box she could actually lift. Parents and students alike were hauling in boxes upon boxes of stuff for rooms the size of shoeboxes. How did they think they were going to fit all of that in a little dorm room? Really?

"Oh, honey, where do you want your futon?" one parent asked his daughter just as Kaiya passed. Kaiya shook her head.

But then, she did wish she had parents what actually cared enough to help her move in and make her new room a home. At least she had the credit card. The great and powerful Saitos would pay for not being parents of the year. Kaiya had in mind a beautiful new blue laptop and a Wii. She wasn't actually a fan of video games, but she just liked to say it. Wii.

*****

"I want to know where Kaiya Saito is at all times, Wei. She is too important to our supporters to let anything happen to her."

"You have my word, General. Kaiya Saito will be carefully watched. With the Red Spirit gone there is no chance of danger," Wei answered the voice on the intercom. He rarely saw the General in person. Wei's division was supposed to be nonexistent. Secrecy was their greatest ally.

"I want your best man on a protection detail."

"General, I am afraid we cannot go down that road again," Wei answered. His best agent had certainly messed things up royally a few months ago. If he showed back up in Kaiya's life now the result would be nothing short of an utter disaster. "But she is in college. How much trouble could she really get into in college?"

"I hope you remember, Wei, that this girl has magnets in her pockets. She does not find trouble. Trouble finds her. Take steps."

"Already done, Sir. We have a whole squad of Elites in the area ready to spring into action at a moment's notice to extract Kaiya Saito from any danger."

That little girl from California was a real pain in Wei's ass. Instead of being able to focus on his search for the Avatar, he had to constantly make sure the daughter of their richest and most influential supporters had to be kept safe. Secretly Wei wished there never had been a Kaiya Saito.

*****

Finally Kaiya came to room one twenty-three. She dropped her box and her bag and stood there a few moments before she knocked. Just thinking.

I could just turn around and go back to California, forget all about this college plan and come up with something better. I could run away. I could tour the world on Mom and Dad's credit. I mean, it's not like they're exactly going to miss me or anything. They wouldn't care if I went to the moon. I don't even think they remember me when they do their taxes. I could disappear and no one would care.

Hahn.

Hahn would kill me. He would track me down and kill me. Uncle Zan was a cop. Hahn probably inherited that truth-seeking gene of his. If anybody could find me, it would be Hahn.

When he gets back from Germany, that is. If he comes back at all. Who the hell goes to Germany when their little cousin is just starting school? Doesn't he realize I'll need him?

Chill out, Kaiya. Remember why you are here. You are here because you had to get away from the ocean. You around oh so much water is just a bad plan. You are going to start a new life for yourself. You are going to forget all the bad.

But first you have to knock on that door.

Before she could knock, the door opened, and standing there before Kaiya was her new roommate. She had shoulder-length, straight black hair and golden eyes. She looked very surprised to find Kaiya just kind of lurking in the hallway.

"Uh, hi!" Kaiya said as enthusiastically as she could. "I'm Kaiya. From California."

"I'm Hotaru. Hotaru Jia," the girl answered, backing into the room so Kaiya could enter.

Kaiya kicked the box into her room while dragging the bag. She hadn't expected much from her dorm room, but this was disgraceful. "How long have you been moved in?" Kaiya asked.

"A week," Hotaru answered, as she always did, just the question put to her. She did not see the point in giving any more information than absolutely necessary.

Kaiya looked around again at the very bare room. There was a mini refridgerator in the corner, Hotaru's bed was neatly made, her desk perfectly organized. But there were no posters on the wall, no trash in the can, no evidence that a teenager lived here at all. If Kaiya had been there a week, the walls would have been covered with surfing posters, artwork, and pictures of Hahn and Aunt Keira, and a visitor probably would not have been able to see the floor. Hotaru had brought a very nice, new rug, however, for the new room. Kaiya bet Hotaru's parents had helped her move.

Hotaru thought the girl from California was too tan, too skinny, and altogether too curious about Hotaru's side of the room. She had known all along this was a bad idea. Why she had not listened to her instincts, she didn't know, but Hotaru was certainly regretting this decision now.

She could have gone to school with her sister, Hoshi. Hotaru couldn't stand Hoshi. The hatred of her sister had outweighed the potential disaster of going to a different college. They looked just alike but were in reality polar opposites. A lot of the time Hotaru, wished she could be anyone else but Hoshi Jia's twin sister.

"So, um," Kaiya started. "Where are you from?" It was very small talk, but she didn't know where else to start. Snowball effect? Maybe? Possibly? Kaiya was trying to think positively.

"Dublin."

"Ireland?" Kaiya asked excitedly, dropping what she was doing to turn around and look at Hotaru, who had perched herself upon her bed and was apparently deep into a mythology book. This turned out to be a bad idea because her clothes fell from her bag onto the floor, making a mess Kaiya was certain that her new clean-freak roommate would not appreciate.

"No," Hotaru answered, raising an eyebrow at Kaiya's clothes. What does she think she will do with three bikinis in Ohio? "Ohio. You know."

"Oh," Kaiya said, disappointed. She started throwing her clothes haphazardly into her dresser. She laughed nervously. "I guess I've got a lot to learn."

"Yeah," Hotaru commented. This is going to be a very long semester.

*****

Zakk looked at the photo again, traced the outline of the fake moon of the prom backdrop with his forefinger. They looked so perfect together. The Dragon Couple. He could barely believe it had only been four months since he had last seen Kaiya. He knew he should burn the picture and the journal he'd found buried in the sand by Kaiya's aunt's house. He knew he couldn't let Wei find out what had really happened while he was supposed to be protecting Kaiya.

The mask flew off her face. She went down. The Ghost stepped up to his conquered enemy, removed his own mask to see her better. "Kaiya!"

Zakk tucked the photo back into the journal and put the whole thing back into his hiding place.

"You really ought to think about letting her go, Zakk," Mike Chan said from behind him. Although he worked directly under Wei, Zakk really trusted Mike. It seemed to him Mike always had something to hide, too. Where they were, if you had something to hide, it meant you were probably doing something right.

Zakk had been taken to the Elites when he was five and placed under Wei's care. For thirteen years Wei had trained him to be the weapon the government needed. Sometimes a spy, sometimes a body guard, always controlled.

"I just can't, Mike."

Maybe not always controlled.

*****

"Like a gift from the heavens it was easy to tell," Kaiya sang from her side of the room, "it was love from above that could save me from hell." She had her headphones on, as Hotaru had requested, but her singing was just as loud as the real music would have been.

Hotaru would have rather heard the real music than Kaiya's attempts at singing.

It had been a week since Kaiya had moved in. Just one week. That was it. Classes had started, and Hotaru was enjoying almost everything about her new college life. People were for the most part friendly, and she thought she would do well in all her classes. But then there was Kaiya. Kaiya who within that week had turned her side of the room into a disaster zone. She never made her bed, didn't understand the concept of a laundry basket, and had somehow managed to fill every inch of her side of the room with junk. Organization was apparently not in Kaiya's limited vocabulary.

Also, she had stuck all these posters up on the walls. Most of them had surfers on them. All of them were blue. Thankfully, Kaiya did understand the room boundary lines and adhered to them very strictly.

"Away, away, away, away, and we danced on into the night," Kaiya sang.

When she started humming the guitar solo, Hotaru lost it. "Kaiya!" she yelled. She felt her heart beat rise dangerously, and she tried to take a breath.

"What?" Kaiya yelled back, taking off the headphones. "I'm wearing the headphones, okay? I cannot function without noise!"

"You are the most chaotic… how can anyone stand to be around you?" Hotaru yelled, throwing her book down onto her bed angrily.

Across the room, Kaiya put her new computer down on her bed and sat up, glaring. "Better than being so tight that if someone shoved a lump of coal up your ass they'd have a diamond in two days!" she screamed.

Hotaru lost control. Suddenly she couldn't see anything but red. Flames shot out of her hands and towards her roommate.

Thinking quickly, Kaiya threw the water from the bottle on the floor onto the flames. So much for nothing exciting happening at college.