Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar.
Chapter 1: I used to watch
I sat down on the couch, and flipped through various channels. Nothing seemed to be interesting enough for my liking so I opened the guide and I suddenly saw Avatar on the listing and clicked on it.
"Finally, something on TV" I was a fan of the show because it was the only good show on television after practice. I remember watching the show when it came out in 5th grade until it ended towards the end of summer before my sophomore year at high school. I loved the finale but it killed my mood towards the show since I knew it was over. I knew I was completely alone in the house and continued to watch an episode I had seen a long time ago when it first aired. Football practice early this morning made my legs ache from all the running they had me do so he left the TV on while he laid his head back on the couch pillow and closed his eyes to rest for a while and fell asleep.
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He woke up slowly and opened his eyes. He felt like he was on something rigid, so he sat up and put his hands on the floor and felt a smooth surface.
"We don't have marble floors in my house." He immediately looked at the floor and saw that it was black. He looked up and saw the room which was draped in red wall paper, and expensive looking furniture and panicked.
"This isn't my house!" He quickly rose and zipped looking for the nearest door and turned around and noticed a tall dark haired girl with bright blue eyes covering her mouth. She looked familiar and Jake stared at her to try and pin who she was and something popped in his head,
"Katara?" Was the first thing he could say. But then he immediately felt stupid for labeling someone a cartoon character.
"H-ho-how do you know my name?" She looked nervous and she didn't take her eyes off him which intimidated him.
"Your name is actually Katara?" She slowly nodded yes. Jake looked at her and asked the obvious question.
"Okay then Katara, where am I?" He looked around the small room which looked like a guest room or something. She looked at him completely still.
"You're in the Fire Nation palace, in one of the royal guest bedrooms." Jake chuckled and gave her an incredulous look.
"Look I know it is not the coolest thing to watch on TV but I like it, and so do millions of others and if you don't that's fine." It was at that exact moment he realized she had the hair loopies, blue water tribe clothes, and bore the shocking resemblance of the Katara he's seen on TV. He looked up and tried to talk to her more.
"How did I get here, if you know?" She put her hand away from her hand.
"I was just walking by to retrieve my bag I thought I left in this room, and I saw a quick flash and you were on the floor and… woke up." He thought she was crazy, and she was starting to really to scare him. He nodded his head slowly and put his hands in front of him in an effort to show empathy.
"Okay, sure it did. I think you are telling the truth and it happened that way." He told her disingenuously. She wasn't daft and she picked up on his tone.
"Hey! I'm not insane! I know what I saw and you appeared out of the air!" This didn't help Jake with his judgment on her, and he took a few slow steps back.
"I never said you were wrong. I agree with you. Okay?" She was obviously angry at his ignorance. She stepped towards and him he backed up.
"Look! Stay back! I won't hesitate to-" She walked to him and he held out his hands defensively. She grabbed his wrist with little effort.
"Look I won't hurt you. Just follow me and I'll show you were we are." He stared at her blue eyes and calmed down.
"Fine show me." She let go of his wrist. The girl led him out of the room and into a huge thirty foot wide hallway. He marveled at all the artifacts and cool stuff neatly lined up. They turned a corner and he immediately noticed the enormous Fire Nation emblem on the wall as they walked by it. He felt like he was at the Smithsonian with all the pots and swords on stools and pedestals. He heard voices down a long hallway and hadn't realized the woman had gone so far ahead of him she was already down the hallway.
"Hey wait up!" Starting to jog, he heard her talking to somebody else. He heard part of the conversation as she was talking. The other person spoke,
"What took you so long Katara?"
"I met this strange person who just appeared and seemingly doesn't know where he is." The person she was talking to however, sounded familiar. Once Jake had reached the end of the hallway, he got his answer. He saw a really short kid that had an arrow on his forehead, was dressed in orange and alarms in Jake's head went off but he said nothing. The tattooed kid greeted him.
"Oh hello there, I'm..."
"Aang.". Jake finished for the Avatar. The young air bender looked at him with curiosity, and shrugged it off.
"Yes... the Avatar as you may know." Jake felt like something hit him in the stomach and knocked the air out of him.
He knew where he was but decided that he could be wrong and this was a dream.
"Look there is a mistake here! I know you guys for real!" He said with a small smile. Both Aang and Katara looked at him with great interest. Jake elaborated and pointed to Aang,
"Okay, check this out! You are from the Southern air temple, and your guardian was a man named Gyasto and you were told you were the Avatar at really young age. You ran away with your bison, Appa, and became imprisoned in an iceberg until Katara here, found you with Sokka by mistake and set you free one hundred years later!" Aang couldn't speak and just looked at him concerned; Katara had a shocked reaction, because there was no possible way a complete stranger would know all those things about her and Aang. Sure much of who Aang is and his travels are common knowledge now but now these specific details.
"How do you know these things!?" Katara put her hands on Jake's shoulders and looked him in the eyes. He looked down afraid to answer with the truth.
"It's complicated." Katara looked at him with confusion and shook herself out of it.
"Okay then. What else do you know!?" Jake was stuck in contemplation about things.
"You're from the Southern Water Tribe and that necklace of yours was given to you by your mother Kya who was killed by the southern raiders, she lied to protect you and you confronted the guy that killed her and you didn't kill him because he was pathetic also you and Aang are in love or something like that." She stepped back in shock. She didn't believe someone could know her so much.
"We need to you to meet our friends, you can help us understand how you know these things." She took Jake by his wrist and ran upstairs to find her friends.
"You mean your brother Sokka, Suki, Toph, Zuko, Mai, Iroh, and Ty lee?" Katara looked back at him and stopped running.
"You know them too?" She shrugged and kept on running for she was not going to waste any more time. They stopped in a big room that had a huge patio to look out at the city, Jake smiled when he saw the characters from the show except slightly older looking, he saw Zuko and Mai standing together, Sokka and Suki who was in her Kyoshi armor without face paint, he also saw Toph sitting at the table talking about how her life is going to be great traveling the world, and saw Ty lee, but was really surprised to see Azula quietly sitting at the table staring right at him.
"This is just gets better." Jake thought to himself. They all stared at Katara and Toph responded in kind.
"Are you okay? Who is this guy with you and twinkle toes?" Jake remembered how she can see despite being blind. Everyone in the room stared at Jake and he stared back awkwardly. Katara caught her breath and attempted to introduce him.
"This is... uh, I'm sorry I didn't quite catch your name." He looked at her,
"Oh I forgot! My name is Jake Matthews." A laugh was heard in back of the room from one particular person. Azula.
"What kind of stupid name is that!?" Jake was taken back. He was not sure how to deal with the insult and nervously chuckled.
"Something funny, boy?" Azula's smirk went away when Jake smiled with her but his smile also disappeared.
"No, nothing." Azula was pleased with intimidating him. Everyone looked back and forth between the two until Katara finally inched Jake forward.
"I saw Jake here appear out of… thin air in one of the royal guest bedrooms, he told Aang and I details about our lives. It would be impossible to know unless you were a good friend. Go ahead show them." Katara stepped behind him; Jake began to point to everyone in the room,
"Okay, you are Zuko and you are Mai, Ty lee, Toph, Sokka, Suki, and Azula." Everyone looked unimpressed, Toph leered at him.
"Anyone can know our names, we are kind of famous captain obvious!" Jake upped the ante,
"Okay fine then, how do I know that you were born blind, and you learned earth bending from one of those giant badger mole things one day when you were young and ran away from your parents? Or that you met Aang at the earth bending tournament and he was the first to beat you in said tournament?" Toph looked stunned and Katara nodded in agreement.
Zuko and Mai looked at each with a concerned look. Ty lee was on her stomach and staring at Jake in amazement. He looked back at Azula and was met with an unsettling stare which gave him chills. Toph ran up to Jake and gripped his collar.
"Okay weirdo, how do you know this!?" Jake put his hands up and he realized that she was astoundingly strong.
"I don't know, it's complicated and I would tell you, but it doesn't matter because this is just some vivid dream I'm having." Toph let him go and stared at him like he was an idiot.
"What? You think this is a dream? Alright then can you feel this?" Toph punched him in the arm, he didn't quite consider that this was real until that moment when the pain ran from his arm to his brain. He rubbed it and that's when the reality of the situation hit him like a ton of bricks. Jake didn't know how to react. Mai asked him a question,
"What clothes are you wearing?" Jake looked down at his black hoodie and blue jeans, white plain shoes.
Azula raised an eyebrow to his apparel for it was something she hasn't ever seen anyone wear before, and continued to give him a cold look.
"You're a nut job, and a loon who needs to be put down like the poor animal he is." Those words stung Jake; he hated being called names just as much as the next person but she was being openly hostile. Why the sudden hostility?
"Oh, come on! I think he's cute and he is like psychic or something. I think that's the impressive thing ever!" Ty lee interjected. She stood up as she got off her stomach. Those words made Jake shrink until he spoke.
"I guess all I can say is that I am not from this… world?" Everyone looked at him like he was crazy. Jake hated that feeling he was getting every time they stared at him like that.
"Yeah right!" Was all Sokka could say to Jake before being hushed by Suki. Aang came up behind him and put his hand on Jake's shoulder and spoke to everyone in the room.
"He's right. He knew things no stranger could know unless he was a good friend or a confidant. There is something strange about him, and I have a feeling we should examine this. The spirit world can bring forth many things that we have yet to understand. We don't know all the answers about how he knows these things but if we ask him, we might get the answers we are looking for." Jake looked at everybody who kept staring, Jake cringed and spoke up,
"Yeah, I'll answer your questions, anything I will try to answer as much as possible and maybe you can answer a few questions of mine."
"Yeah I have some questions for you. We can give him a room to stay in while he is here." Mai placed her hand in Zuko's as a reward for his liberality.
"Fine, tomorrow then. Where?" Jake had no idea how to get around this museum of a house.
"If you don't mind me asking, where's Iroh?" Zuko considered him seriously.
"He's in Ba Sing Se, managing his tea shop."
"I'll wake you up early and take you where you need to go for questioning." Jake smiled as he was indeed tired. Zuko then gave him instructions.
"As it is late, we were about to go to sleep, so if you could Mai, please show our visitor to his room."
Everyone got up and walked towards the door, and walked past Jake, Zuko and Mai stayed behind. Jake watched everyone leave, he noticed that Azula was the last one out, and as she passed him, she gave Jake a not so friendly stare which made Jake look away, and she grinned knowing she frightened him. Zuko noticed this and reassured him,
"Don't worry about her. As you may or may not know, Azula was released from her treatment facility recently and is now a stable person. She mostly reconciled with everyone about her past mistakes. I need her to help repair the wounds that continue to plague this nation."
Mai took that as her cue. Zuko stayed behind as she gestured for Jake to follow her and he began to walk out the door and he looked back to see Zuko. Mai walked Jake through the hallway and he used this time to observe the palace and he saw all the paintings and emblems, basically expensive stuff he could never afford if he broke any one of them. He started to get uncomfortable with the silence between him and Mai and wanted to end it.
"Your house is really nice." Mai looked back to see Jake looking around the palace, she turned back around and accepted the compliment.
"Thank you, we added a lot of art that was gifted to us by various dignitaries after we rid the palace of the propaganda pieces that hung around until Zuko's coronation." They continued through the palace.
"So you're the bored one right?" She looked back with interest.
"What? " He got nervous, and asked again.
"Yeah you're the one who was always seemed disinterested in things. You know it's kind of funny to meet someone you've only known of because you're much taller in person than I imagined on TV." Mai raised an eyebrow and wondered what a TV was. She eased up at his easy going attitude and slightly grinned, she was already taking a liking to him.
"Yes, that's me; most things become uninteresting if you had done everything I had done." Jake smiled back
"Thanks for the advice" They shared a laugh. She stopped in front of a door.
"This is it." He came to a stop and thanked her for the chat and she went on her way.
He opened the door and walked in the pitch black room which had a big window but it was already dark outside. He looked outside and saw the lights of the city and the palace.
"Wow this place is really great." The next thing he knew, he was violently grabbed with an arm around his neck and the other grabbed his arm, leaving him defenseless.
"Thank you." It was a feminine voice and could barely see through the dark until he saw her reflection in an adjacent mirror.
"Azula!?" She still kept him in a hold and confirmed that it was her. She whispered into his ear.
"You think I'm stupid! That I don't know your game."
"Wh- wa-, what are you talking about!?"
"I know what you're doing, you want to become our friends and then you'll make your move. I don't know what you're planning exactly but I'm not going to let my guard down and I will keep my eye on you."
"Okay fine, but please let me go!" She let him go, and he gasped for breath and faced her,
"Jesus! What is your problem!? God you almost killed me!"
"I would've. You know that."
"I know you're insane!" Azula grabbed his shirt and pointed in his face until her finger was on his cheek. He put his hands up.
"You listen to me boy, I can bring you pain beyond measure and I won't hesitate to." Jake finally had enough of this abuse.
"Fine. Then do it, if not... you see that door there? You can walk out of it and leave me alone." Azula let him go and he pushed her hand away from him and she stood there a mere foot away from him.
"You're brave. Stupid, but brave." She began to walk towards the door.
"Remember what I said, if I snuck up on you once, I can and will do it again." She made eye contact with Jake while right outside the door,
"Sweet dreams." Azula closed the door, and Jake shivered at the thought of someone else with him at all times. He took off his clothing and left them on the side of the bed. Jake found night wear near the dresser and admired the silk material even though such a luxury was something he didn't care for. He crawled into bed and began to think of answers to questions he knew they would ask and began to drift off to sleep. The wind blew and rustled the plants outside the window and he nervously disregarded the noise. He settled into sleep and a thought crept into his mind.
"Is she serious?"