Author's Note: This story is more of a continuation after the series ended but there are some things that happened in the series that will be added (by me) to make it more interesting. Don't worry, the timeline ends up the same. I try to get things chronologically in order and plausible enough, but I apologize for inconsistencies that might arise. This story is being told through two characters-Aang and the Lieutenant. Also, I do not have a name for the Lieutenant. His name is simply 'the Lieutenant'. If this is confusing, I might change it. Let me know!
Chapter 1
Present Day
Village near Southern Pole:
Inside the small broken down shack, the air reeked of death and fermented rice beer. A man stumbled in to find a spot away from peeping eyes and nosey noses.
He was not on death's bed, but he held the aura of death and despair for one still quiet young. He had a tall frame, but hunched his shoulders forward like a poor soul who had lost everything-not unlike a lot of souls who pass through the Rotten Tree Saloon.
The man sat down with a grunt. He kicked up his frayed cloth shoes unto the nicked wooden table.
"Wha' can a ge'ye?" An old, equally rough looking bar maid hollered from her perch at the bar.
The man never bothered to ever know her name. Why would he? The old hag would be dead in a year, if that. There were not many customers in her dirty watering hole on a frightening night like this. It was too cold in the small, nameless village in the Southern Pole for anyone to want to travel in.
The snow wheezed and coughed its way between the unattended cracks of the building. The haggard man flicked his greasy whiskers at the small, untidy barmaid.
"Just the usual." He slapped a few gold Yuan pieces on the table.
He then reached with a long, scared hand into the folds of his thick, Yak-Bear fur coat. Out came a wooden pipe. He then fished for the black flint as the barmaid reached his table with the lovely nectar that he always ordered on cold nights like this…or every night, in fact.
"Ye know," the toothless maid grinned, "you're damned lucky the Avatar doesn' know we sell dis stuff. We wouldn' be able te nurse tha habit of yers anymores."
The man glared at her with his soft golden eyes. "Set it down."
The nasty hag slapped down the cup of Cactus Juice with annoyance, and slid the coins into her withered hands. She shuffled on.
The man heard faint mumblings of 'damned dem former fire Nation rats…and rottin' away on cactus slop and takin up space' as the old maid made her way back to her position behind the counter. He chuckled dryly as his eyes lowered to his cup.
She was lucky he paid her at all for the piss she served. It was so watery.
He took a small swig, then another. Grabbing his flint, he set his pipe on the table. Striking, the flint erupted a small spout of flame.
As soon as it did, it went cold and the warm air was sucked out once again. A new customer had arrived.
The figure lingered by the door, as the man in corner observed him from across the room. The figure's hood still incased over his head. The man could only guess the new arrival was looking for a lonely spot to sit that wasn't occupied. Or perhaps he was looking for a good observing point, like himself?
As if the dark cloaked figure read the man's mind, the figure's barely visible lips from the candle light curled into a humorless smile and he purposefully made his way back towards where the lonely man sat. He frowned as the stranger came infinitely closer to his table.
Pretty soon, through the pipe smoke, the tall hooded figure reached the man. He shuffled uncomfortably in his chair.
The man tried to ignore him at first, thinking his visitor must be looking for someone else. He went to reach for his cup of Cactus juice when a long slender hand slammed onto the table in front of him. The man grunted, but another hand swiped the cup from his lips, and he went silent. His eyes traveled down upon the exposed hands of his visitor for the first time.
They had intricate, black tattoos of the Air Benders.
"Wha…What are you doing here?" It was too late to flee.
The man's eyes flicked up to the face of the only Air Bender he had ever known, and will know. For once in a long time, his hands trembled. Of all people still alive who wished him dead, he didn't expect to see the Avatar.
Aang, still keeping his cloak up, looked into the prematurely wrinkled face of the man. "I need your help."
The Avatar was no longer the carefree twelve year old boy he had first known. Aang was much taller than expected, and his shoulders had grown into the broad fierceness that he would forever be from here on out. His face no longer held the roundness of a child, but his eyes seemed…the same, yet reflecting sorrow. Underneath the black cloak, he didn't wear the Air Nomad garb. Instead, he sported a plain white tunic, cotton brown leggings, and short boots made from soft platypus-bear hide.
It was odd, and terrifying, to see him so looming.
The straggled, beat down man stammered. "How did-But…
The young Avatar, who must be the age of eighteen now, scoffed with malice. The man shrunk away from him.
"It's pretty easy to find you…I knew you'd be in the scummiest place just rotting away." Aang murmured in contempt as he looked down his nose at the pathetic man.
"What do you want?" The man asked meekly.
"She's missing, Lieutenant." Aang responded morosely.
He didn't need to explain to the brooding, sloppy man whom he was referring to. The man gulped, he hadn't been called Lieutenant for six years now. Was it really only that long ago? It felt like decades.
"You are speaking of your Water Bender friend, aren't you?" The nervous man asked.
"She is not just my friend." Aang growled in a low voice. "She's my wife."
"Of course—sorry. Wh-what happened?"
Seeing the concern on the Lieutenant's face, Aang calmed a bit. "I'm not certain but I think she's been taken by…your friend."
The man buried his face in his dirty hands, somehow knowing this day would come. "You…have to understand Aang-"
Aang hissed when his own name was mentioned.
The Lieutenant lowered his voice. "I didn't mean for it to go as far as it did. I had no idea what she was capable of doing…" The man was almost pleading now.
For the first time since Aang's mysterious appearance back into the Lieutenant's life, he softened his gaze. "I understand. What you did was what I might have done," Aang's grey eyes, which had once held curiosity, now only held despair. They stared off into the distance, as if he was remembering something horrible, "yet you aided that…woman before, and this time you're going to help me find her. I'm certain it was her that took..."
Aang couldn't say her name out loud as he squeezed his hands into fists. A haunting memory flashed briefly in the Lieutenant's mind. His eyes began to sting but he blinked the would-be tears. He had no more of tears left.
"Absolutely certain it was her?" The former Fire Nation Lieutenant implored.
Aang still hovered over the Lieutenant, then silently as possible, scooted into the seat across from the man.
"Yes…there was a strange bond that both of them shared back in the Desert. You saw how that woman coveted her Water Bending skills; how she pretended to be her friend…" Aang trailed off again, picking someone else's old forgotten bread crumbs off the table with overzealous vindication. Was Aang flashing back to the memories too? The Lieutenant didn't know for sure.
"When I came home after a long campaign, all I found on our bed was this."
Aang reached inside his robe and brought out a small amulet. The amulet bore the water symbol of the Water Tribes but another smaller symbol lay in the circlet of waves; it was a small sun inlayed with gold filigree.
The man took the amulet into his shaking hands and almost threw it across the room; every part of him hated that symbol and he hadn't dreamed he'd ever lay eyes upon it again.
"I can't do it. I can't go back to that place-to her." The man sighed heavily.
"I saved your life, Lieutenant." Aang warned.
The man knew better than to NOT expect Aang to come knocking on his door after those days in the Si Wong Desert. The Lieutenant shook his head in dismay. He knew that Aang would come back for that favor, but he didn't realize it would be like this. He certainly hadn't forgotten everything that had happened.
He had a debt to the Avatar.
Absently, Aang's finger dipped into the man's cup and he flicked his finger over his tight lips. "I could have you arrested for drinking this…" Aang grabbed the sloshed cup of Cactus juice back into his graceful hands. "This doesn't work on you anymore, does it?"
It wasn't so much a question, as it was an inquiry.
Confused, the Lieutenant shook his head, picking up his pipe to take one nervous suck at its delicious tobacco. "I haven't been affected by it in three years. Instead of forgetting, I am reminded each night of my past when I drink it. The memories just…flood in. It's really all I have left."
To the Lieutenant's growing curiosity, Aang smiled an almost genuine smile. "Good, because that is really going to be the only way I can use you. I'm going to need the deepest blocked memories of your days in the Si Wong Desert."
Before the Lieutenant could ask why, Aang slapped a piece of parchment down on the weathered table in front of the pathetic excuse for a Lieutenant. "Ma'am, more Cactus juice please."
The old barmaid either was too preoccupied to notice who had ordered, or she didn't care as she brought over more Cactus juice in two large mugs. She didn't acknowledge Aang in the slightest. Aang's slender chin dipped in a gratuitous motion and the woman greedily took his parchment of Yuan credit into her claws without so much as a nod. The barmaid's hospitality was as dry as the paper in which she held.
"You gave that woman way too much money."
"She needs it more than I do."
"I guess you haven't changed that much after all, Aang." The lieutenant's eyes glistened with amusement.
Surprisingly, Aang's lip grew stiff, and he didn't acknowledge the compliment. He perched his lean elbows on the table, carefully to not expose his tattoos upon his hands. He glared at his old rivalry. His grey eyes hooded with bitterness that even the Lieutenant didn't like to see on the young man's usually kind face.
Getting down to business, Aang motioned for him to drink up.
"Now Lieutenant, before we set off to find her, tell me everything you know about Mirage."
Author's Note: Yay, my first Avatar: ATL fic! Ah, get on with it in the next chapter. Also, thank you Elite Fanfic for inspiring me for this idea. It's not quite what you had challenged me to do, but I hope it was still an intriguing enough story concept