This story contains the bending elements of the Avatar world, and has some of the same titles and functions as the Grounders in the 100. The Commander is much like the avatar, they are able to bend all four elements, and are told of their birth right at 16. But instead of being a spiritual guide and an icon for the world, they are one only for the 12 tribes. All of the tribes have a mixture of benders, and do not have a set ethnicity.
Under Major Editing
Prologue: Five Years Ago
I looked at my brother, the Avatar. His dark hair had been gelled back so it didn't spring forward over his forehead. The look made him appear regal, matured, anything but the twenty-one-year-old that he was. His deep set eyes looked over the room, and stopped at me for a short second, then kept going. Nathan's cold exterior caused the other leaders to treat him with respect, despite his youth. He wandered the room and he did others turned to greet him while his long cape and sash flowed behind him. All of his guests were dressed in their finest clothes, showing which Clan they were from. They were all here for him.
The silver light of the full moon flooding in through the large windows that stared down at the vast ocean below. The dull roar of the waves could be heard over the chatter in the ballroom. Which itself was illuminated with candles and a grand crystal chandelier. All of which caused the marble floor underneath to reflect the dancing light and the people. Along with bringing light to the caste ceiling interior and the large space. He had picked one hell of a meeting hall. It was a castle-like building on a very large estate.
We had been here for two hours as he discussed his duties as the Avatar, and made sure that everyone was okay. The spiritual and protector of the world. Coraline, my younger twin sister, and I had resigned to one of the many tables that littered the room. She sat quietly with her nose in a book, while I traced meaningless patterns on the table cloth with water from my glass.
"Nick stop," she commanded, without looking up from her novel.
"I'm bored." Coraline rolled her dark eyes at me, and flipped the page. I watched her play with her short raven colored hair before I spoke again. "Coraline." I poked her arm, which elicited a slap on the wrist.
"Go wander the halls, or follow Nathan around," she suggested. I could tell that she was more than mildly irritated with me, since I was interrupting her reading time. I let out a loud sigh, and rested my head on the table.
"I can't sit still," I grumbled into the fine silk.
"Yeah, I know," Coraline agreed. My sister, unlike me, was better at sitting in a boring meeting room for extended periods of time. If my brother ever invited us to any of his gathers, or whatever else, she dragged me there. Coraline was definitely more like Nathan in that aspect. She could fake her way through a ceremony or whatever else. I was more like Mathew, our other older brother, who was more casual. So was dad, and Anna, my older other sister.
Our family, is more than seriously divided. My parents were not the typical romance novel. Mom grew up in the harsh environment under the watchful eye of the Twelve clans. An ancient tribal society that regulated under the harsh rules of their ancestors. They lived outside the dictation of outsiders, under the rule of the council of twelve (composed of the twelve chiefs) and resided in Alia Terra, the territory of the Coalition.. The tribes courted war often, and usually stayed within their boundaries. She had fallen for my father, during a visit to, Klia, another country across the sea. Who was an already married man at the time, and the continued to have an affair. Then she popped out Nathan, and then a few years later my sister and I.
At the same time however, he had Mathew and Anna with his wife, Jessica. Who later found out about his affair, I know they had problems but they had long since worked them out. But that didn't mean everything was completely alright. A few years later my mother died in battle, and since Nathan was busy training as a the Avatar and was too young to watch us we lived with our dad and his wife.
I'd be lying if I said that Jessica liked Nathan. And since I had been around her and dad more than maybe my vision was a little warped. Most of the time, I pitied Nathan. Even though Jessica wasn't our mom, she was better than nothing. My full brother had no one, except for Coraline and me.
"Are you guys doing okay?" I heard my brother ask.
"Yes," Coraline replied.
"It's getting kind of late, if you two would like to go back to the room then I could send a guard with you," he offered politely.
"I got it Nat," I told him, lifting my head from the table, "let's go little sister." We stood up in unison, and she leaned forward to give our brother a hug. He welcomed the affection, and hugged her back.
"I'll see you in the morning," he stated as they broke apart.
"I ain't hugging ya," I said with a grin. He smiled and clapped me on the back. His dark eyes glowed with warmth for a moment, and then suddenly growing cold again.
"Wouldn't expect you to." With that exchange, we said our goodbye's and left the the large ballroom and all of its shimmering lights, and its exquisite guests dressed in their finest clothing. No one except for the guards noticed us slipping out.
We walked down the long stone hallways leading away from the party. Our footsteps echoing and the silence becoming more prominent. I turned to Coraline while navigating the twisting halls. My sister was staring down at her feet, book gripped tightly in her right hand, while her arms swung back in forth rhythmically. Soon enough, we reached the large oak doors that opened up onto the large courtyard the flowed off into where we were staying.
Everyone at the meeting would either be residing inside of the estate or in the small town near by. A select few of Nathan's clan and his personal guard was staying within the stone walls. My brother associated with, Tenebrosi, it was the tribe that my mother hailed from. They mainly lived in large cities that dotted the mountain. Contrary to what some believe, they lived with many of the amenities of modern day life, they just had an affinity for war.
"We'll only be here one more night," Coraline said, and I could have swore she said with with some sadness. We stopped in front of a large marble fountain that was positioned in the center of the courtyard. It stood in the pale moonlight, all three tiers of it shimmered in the darkness. She drew closer and sat on the very edge, dipping her fingers into the water, careful to not get her book wet. Her long fingers skimmed the top of the water as we began to talk with the soft sides of water splashing in the background.
"I know," I replied, taking a seat next to her. The marble was cold to the touch, and sent a soft chill up my spine. "I'll be glad when we're back home."
"I don't miss home," she admitted bitterly. My mind drifted as we sat there in silence, basking in the beauty of the of the fountain. Thoughts of the rolling hills that surrounded our home. The animals would be grazing in the pastures surrounding the house and dad would be waiting for us. I loved being able to experience the world that my mother lived in, and the one that Nathan ruled, but my heart always longed for home. We had a small family farm in the rolling hills of a continent far away. I thought about it a lot.
"I know." More often did I find my sister admitting her want to join my mother's clan. She would ask our dad all sorts of questions about mom, and I know that she kept some of my mother's old swords and daggers.
"He would let us stay," Coraline murmured, while looking at the fountain.
"It sounds like you wanna stay," I said, "it sounds like you want me to stay." She looked up at me with big brown eyes.
"Think how great it could be, we could be closer to mom's family, and we could travel and we could become full mem-"
"We'd have to become soldiers, we'd have to be like Nathan," I pointed out. They wouldn't just accept us into Tenebrosi, yeah, we both knew some combat skills and general warrior stuff, but that wasn't all of it. At the age of sixteen, everyone who wants to reach warrior status is set on out on the three trials. The first one is to take the symbol of the tribe, and they brand it into your skin with a metal stamp. The second is fasting for three days straight in a wilderness shrine. The third is the worst one of all, you have to kill someone the clan has a bounty on and bring back their head for the chief.
Not only did that involve the three trials, but we would have to leave our home, and stay in Alia Terra. Where the tribes actually resided, we would stay here in this strange place, without the guidance of our father and our older half siblings.
"I don't care," she replied, "and you don't have to go with me."
"We can talk about it with dad when we get home," I finally said. Coraline let out a loud huff, she didn't seem satisfied with my answer. "Let's go to the room." With an angry grumble she stood up, and we left the fountain and started to move down the corridor again to the room.
"Aren't you at least tempted to join?"
"No." Maybe I lied a little, but I had a life with my father. Unlike me, Coraline resented our father.
"Have you ever wanted to be closer to mom's family or mom's culture?"
"Yes," I answered when we got to the door. "You got the key?" My sister handed it to me with quite a bit of force. "Thanks."
We entered the room, I was more than done with the conversation my sister and I just had. She had gone into the bathroom off the large suite and slammed the door shut. She, Nathan, and I were all in the same room. There were three cots arranged around the room in various positions. The room itself was quite impressive, it had a grand fireplace in the far right corner, complete with a stone mosaic surrounding its smoke stack. Large windows let streams of moonlight flood into the room, creating beautiful patterns that scattered themselves across the floor. And it was filled with beautiful paintings of woodland scenes and vases. As nice as it was, it wasn't really my style, I felt like I was gonna break something. If I did, then Coraline would yell at me.
I let out a huff and paced around the room for a few minutes. My sister had rushed to the bathroom, probably not wanting to talk to me for a few minutes. I knew exactly what she was thinking, she was going to join no matter what. What I had said cemented her feelings and the teenage urge to rebel. The only thing that I could think of to do was beg her to stay, and to not make any rash decisions. God, I would die if anything happened to her. We were best friends, we lived with our parents divorce together, we were a team.
"Nick, you're going to make a rut in the floor," she grumbled. My sister emerged from the bathroom in her night clothes. Scowling, she settled down into her bed next to mine, while angrily making eye contact with me.
"Sorry," I muttered, sitting down on my bed.
"I can't change how I feel. I think you know that I've been thinking about this for a while," she started, "I'm not looking for your approval, not you or dad's. I want to do this for me." I made a sound of disapproval and squashed my head into a feather pillow. "You're being a jerk."
"I'm sorry," I said, looking up from the pillow, "but I just don't want anything to happen to you."
"I know."
"Then before you make any life altering decisions, talk to me first," I told her.
"That's what I'm doing right now!" She snapped angrily. "And I know how you, dad, and Mathew, how you all feel about Nathan." I felt my face heat up, and I looked away in shame. "Jessica, everyone treats him like there's something wrong with him." Her eyes flashed, "They look at us that way too you know."
"I know."
"So, then come with me. Leave behind our father and his stupid wife and other family," my sister hissed.
"We can't just leave. We've only scraped the surface of Mom and Nathan's tribe, we would be so alone." I paused, "if we go with Nathan then they won't ever take us back."
"I don't care, I'm getting out of that stupid hellhole and leaving with Nathan in the morning whether you like it or not," she snapped acidly.
"Coraline, please think about this," I begged. I stared directly at her.
"I have, I'm done living with that bitch and her perfect children and our lying father," my sister burst out, I could taste the acid in her voice. "I'm going to bed, talk to me when you aren't being an idiot."
"Good night," I said bleakly. I buried myself in the covers, kicking my shoes off as I went, and face the opposite direction of her. I heard her muttering curse words, and then the sounds of sheets moving as she settled in too. Then after a few minutes, I heard Coraline snoring softly. She must have been awfully tired to fall asleep that fast. It was probably all that arguing.
So I lay, Gods know how long, staring up at the ceiling. I thought about mom and how much Coraline reminded me of her. They had a fire in their eyes that I knew I didn't have. Literally and figuratively. Tossing and turning in the sheets I thought about what my sister had said. She was the only one other than Nathan, who had any ability to bend an element. I know that she felt very alone in her gift and in life. She was right when she made the statement that they looked at us differently. We weren't apart of their perfect family, we were a line of red against a beautiful white canvas.
"Damn it," I cursed. I didn't want her to leave, but I knew that she wanted to, she desperately wanted to leave. I stood up, throwing back the covers. I needed to go on a walk, because laying in bed was not helping me. I laced up my shoes and grabbed the key, careful not to wake my sister up. I slipped out of the room as quietly as I could, making sure to lock the door behind me.
There wasn't a sound in the hallway when I entered it. The corridor seemed eerie as I walked hastily toward the fountain. Only the candles lit every few feet allowed for any light. Lost in thought, I made it to the fountain, it looked a lot less majestic now. I settled down on the edge once more, drawing my fingers across the top, creating ripples as they went.
Maybe I could convince her in the morning that this was a bad idea. I had gotten her all worked up. Usually when she was tired, angry, or hungry that made her more prone to arguing and going against anything that you said. She'll be less emotional in the morning after a good night sleep, I thought.
And then I heard the sound of a loud bang. I didn't know what it was but it came from the direction of our room, and I ran sprinting down the hallway as fast as I could. When I got closer to the door I saw plumes of smoking coming from the inside.
"Coraline!" I shouted running into the room.
Oh fuck, of fucking hell, I mentally cursed inside of my head, please no.
And there she was, well there was her body anyways. The sheets were soaked crimson with her blood, her head rolled off the bed with a loud thump. It felt like my heart was being ripped out of my chest. Then I noticed a figure in the corner, whoever it was was dressed all in black. They wielded two dual swords, both of them dripping with my sister's blood.
I remember something my mother always said, a war chant. Blood must have blood, and I couldn't agree with that phrase any more right now. Suddenly, the room got very very hot. I felt like my body was burning, I was burning. Everything was burning. It was some of the worst pain I have ever felt in my life. It started in my chest and worked its way down my limbs and traced its way up my spine. All I could hear was a roaring sound in my ears, and the sound of agonizing screaming in the background.
Blood must have blood.
"Nick! Cora!" I heard yelling over the burning room and the sound of many footsteps in the hallways. My brother burst into the room, his guards quickly set out the fire, and the room went down several degrees. I fell to my knees in front of her bed and so did Nathan. Tears started to pour down my face and I heard the sound of steam hissing as they stained my cheeks.
"Blood has had blood," when of the guards announced in a resonating voice as two other picked up the charred and dried body of the assailant. I didn't dare look longer for a closer inspection because I could smell the scent of his burning flesh.
"Nick," Nathan said weakly, "we have to get out of her." I shook my head no.
"Coraline's body," I mumbled, "we can't-"
"I will take care of it," he promised, "get out and go somewhere safe. There could be another hitman."
"Your fight is over," I whispered softly as I was ushered out of the room by a guard.
