Scene 1 Chap 1

Mk2

Space Magic Sucks.

A/n: Update 11/23/2015

Changed the intro

A lot

I'm doing that with a lot of things this month so, you know, hold onto you're pants.

Seriously, this chapter's increased by 50%.

Also, did some tweaks to what is said, what people know, and what happens. Nothing too major, doesn't really change anything that's going to happen down the line much. It's just, I felt like these first couple of chapters could be better. SO you could think of this as being a kind of re-write of the first chap.

If you want, latter I'll post the original versions.

Don't really know why you would want to do that, but whatever.

Enjoy the new awesome chap

My world is a wonderful, beautiful place, filled with incredible people who can do incredible things. Some can control the very elements themselves, something we call bending, and we call them benders. It's not an incredibly rare gift, but not everyone can do it, probably about 25-10% of people are benders.

Here, the world is mostly split up by benders since the type of bender you are is determined by race.

Fire benders come from the Fire Nation in the Fire Islands.

Earth benders come from the Earth Kingdom on the main continent.

Water benders come from the Water Tribes in the poles and swamps.

And air benders come from the Air Nomads who lived in the Air Temples that doted the mountains of the world.

Then, there's the Avatar.

The Avatar is one of the most powerful and important being in this world. Here, the avatar is someone who is chosen by the spirits to be the bridge between the spirit world and the human world. Unlike anyone else in the whole world, they can bend all the elements, no just one of the four primaries.

There can only be one Avatar at a time. Each Avatar is the reincarnation of the one before him or her. That being said, they don't have to be anything like their predecessor. The can male, female, violent, timid.

Anything

That, and a whole of other perks and responsibilities come from being the ambassador between worlds. That being said, the worst part is probably having to deal with the legacy of my predecessors being compared to me.

My predecessor, Aang, is often heralded as a hero for becoming a fully realized Avatar and stopping the 100 years war started by the Fire Nation when he was only 12. The Fire nation, about 170 years ago, started a war against the world. As a result of it the air benders were almost completely eradicated from the world, Aang was the last one left.

Since I'm alive that means he died, but he died peacefully in his sleep from old age, and he left a family behind to carry on the legacy of the Air Nomads. And that was after a life filled with adventures, heroics, and fighting to bring peace, balance, and harmony throughout the world.

In fact the only failure in his past, other than being frozen in a ball of ice for 100 years and missing a lot of the war, was the Kyoshi incident.

The Kyoshi incident is what we call something that happened over several months, and ended at Kyoshi Island. Unlike most of his adventures, Katara and Zuko have been unable, or unwilling, to tell me everything that happened. Frankly I think it's a bit of both.

The Kyoshi incident started a few years after Aang stopped the 100 years war, during a period of peace and rebuilding. It started when several things happened at once.

First, princess Azula of the Fire Nation. She was a supporter of the war and "Burn everything" plan the Fire Nation had at the end of the war, and was thrown in an insane asylum for being mentally unstable and violent, as well as being an extremely dangerous traitor. Well she broke out of her prison somehow.

Even today, no one seems to know how exactly she did it. At least, Zuko and Katara have never told me if they knew. She just seemed to vanish from her padded cell. When she finally did turn up again, she appeared in the Earth Kingdom.

Second, somewhere in the Earth Kingdom, towns and villages started to…die. I don't know what happened to them, exactly. When people came across them it's as if the entire town experienced a winter in the South Pole. Everything, even the people were frozen solid. And I don't mean they were frozen in a block of ice, I mean their bodies themselves were frozen.

Everything in each town found like this was dead. Nothing was spared. Women, children, the elderly. Even the pets. It's like the entire town suddenly dropped to -40 Celsius.

The worst part, was their faces. You could tell by looking at them that this wasn't just some odd weather phenomenon, something did this. Everyone is looking towards and running away from…something. No one's ever told me what was responsible for this atrocity, and I don't really know what could cause it.

It was known as the Spirit of Winter.

Finally, there was the Augustine, the Iron Dragon. The Iron Dragon was an enigma. Non one really knows too much about him. I don't even know where he came from or what he actually looks like. He walked around wearing heavy metal armor with a helmet stylized to resemble a dragon's head, which is how he got the name. That being said, that's not the only reason he's known as the Iron Dragon.

He was a metal bender.

A powerful one at that.

Keep in mind, Toph had only just invented metal bending for our world a few years before he showed up. Supposedly he was a master at it, even putting Toph to shame, though he used it sparingly. Unlike most benders he didn't actually use it too much. He would use it on his armor and weapons on occasion, and sometimes to create restraints for people, but he didn't use it as a primary form of attack. Instead he used his indestructible armor, powerful Warhammer, versatile handheld bombs, and magical metal rod to overpower or outsmart his opponents.

More importantly, unlike the spirit of winter, the Iron Dragon was a hero. Where the Spirit of Winter brought nothing but death as it carved its way through the Earth Kingdom, the Iron Dragon went helping people, saving them from bandits and rouge soldiers.

Apparently all of them Aang, Azula, the Spirit of Winter, and the Iron Dragon, were all searching for something. The same thing, really. I don't know what it was, or how Azula knew about it, but it was known as the Artifact, and it fell from elsewhere, maybe even the Spirit World, just before they appeared. Whatever it was, it was powerful. It fell into many hands during the Kyoshi incident, and it took several months any of the four groups to find it. By the time it did, it was on Kyoshi Island, where the final battle for the Artifact took place.

Before the final battle, Aang and his friends ran into the Iron Dragon a few times, though they weren't exactly the best of friends at first. Apparently they had a rough couple of meetings.

On top of that, since Azula escaped from prison someone had to track her down, because at the time no one knew she was after the Artifact too. That someone was Sokka, my teacher Katara's older brother, and it was a decision they regretted for the rest of their lives.

The final battle at Kyoshi Island was intense, and after several hours of searching and fighting, it was the Spirit of Winter versus the Iron Dragon. The battle ended with the disappearance of the Iron Dragon, the Spirit of Winter, the Artifact, and Kyoshi Island being frozen over.

When I say frozen over, I don't mean it just got cold, or even what happened to the villages the Spirit of Winter visited previously. No.

Instead the entire island and the surrounding waters for a few miles were frozen in a giant glacier that never melts. Nothing can affect the ice, and the weather in the area never changes. It's like the very space itself in that region has become locked in time. Aang and his friends were lucky enough to escape themselves after recapturing Azula.

No one else did.

Everyone, and I mean Everyone, who lived on the island died being frozen in that block of ice, even Sokka's fiancé Suki. Shortly after Azula was recaptured, she escaped again after taking Sokka's life in the process.

Katara was never the same after that. She has her scars from the war on her, but the worst ones are the ones in her mind from the Kyoshis incident. Even after the incident she kept getting hurt. As a result of her more overprotective tendencies after the death of her brother, she accidently drove her daughter to run away from home when she was only 13, and she hasn't seen or heard from her since. She doesn't even know if she's still alive. Then, just a few years ago, her husband, Aang, died, and I was born.

She managed to find the will to live, but people say she's never been the same with all the people she's lost.

Azula, after escaping, became the most wanted woman in the world, but that didn't help at all. Despite the enormous bounty on her head, enough to fund a small army, she's never been found. There's been rumors here and there, but most people thinks she's died by now. But Katara still thinks she's out there, plotting to retake the Fire Nation throne someday, somehow.

Toph was also struck hard by the loses of the Kyohsi Incident. As a result she started to slowly draw away from Katara, Aang, and Zuko. Zuko seemed to think she had a thing for Sokka, which is why it might have affected her so strongly. Now nobody seems to know if she's even still alive, and no one seems to have close ties with her daughters.

Zuko, stead of pushing away from group like Toph, actually drew closer. As a result, the ties between the Southern Water Tribe and the Fire Nation grew close and strong, stronger then the bonds with South's sister tribe in the north. Distance also had its part to play in this, since the Fire Nation is so much closer to the Southern Water Tribe than its northern sister, which is literally on the other side of the world. I even got to meet the royal family from time to time.

Then there's Augustine the Iron Dragon. No one really knows what happened to him. Most seem to think he died in that Iceberg like everyone else did. Before the final battle, Aang's group and the Iron Dragon weren't on the best of terms, though no one really seems to tell me why. After seeing the Iron Dragon sacrifice himself to stop the Spirit of Winter, though, they changed their opinion about him.

Yeah, Kyohsi Island was lost in the process, but considering the Spirit was strong enough to fight and even overpower Aang in the avatar state, it could have been a lot worse. As a result he's been remembered as a hero, and there's a huge monument in Republic city to him and the Kyoshi incident. Tales told about him and his heroics as he travelled through the Earth Kingdom have been told throughout the world, and while he isn't nearly as famous or loved as Aang was, he is incredibly well known despite being such an enigma.

That being said, while most people think he died, I think differently. I don't know why, but I think he managed to find a way back home, back to the people who knew him, cared about him, and loved him.

Then there's me. Korra. I'm the next avatar, and while I love being the avatar, being constantly compared to my predecessor makes me feel like a failure. Aang was a fully realized Avatar at 12, I'm 18 and I can't even blow a puff of air. At 12 he ended a war that set the world on fire. I have never even left the icy white lotus compound in the South Pole. He was a powerful avatar who was charismatic and always spoke of peace and balance, always looking for a way to resolve the situation peacefully.

Me? I'm brash, violent, and impulsive. I'm always too quick to go to violence, instead of looking for different methods. I'm still trapped in this compound because the elders, even Katara, think I'm still too dangerous to be let out of my cage. They don't think I'm worthy of being the avatar, like Aang was. They think that the spirits made a mistake picking me. Despite being the bridge between the Spirit World and the Human World, I don't even have the barest amount of spirituality in me, unlike Aang, who was the perfect bridge between worlds.

They never say it out loud, of course, but I can see it in their eyes. In their actions. In the way they never let me out of their sight. They don't trust me to be able to behave myself, to not make a fool of myself or destroy everything.

Even Katara, despite loving me like her own child, doesn't trust me to go off by myself.

And it hurts. It hurts like nothing else. I have no one else here. I can't even seem my parents. I don't know what they're doing, nobody lets me see them or anyone I could be friends with because it "could distract me from my Avatar duties.". They say that, and it might be true, but I know the real reason.

They're afraid of what I could do to them. I've hurt trainers before with my bending on accident. I crushed someone's arm once when earth bending, burned someone with firebending, and I even cut of someone's hand once with a water blade. I'm dangerous, I know that, but that was years ago. I've learned how to hold back. How to keep my bending under control.

I just wish they could trust me enough to have a friend.

It's the day of my fire bending mastery exam, and I'm right in the middle of it, throwing fireballs right and left, blocking, countering going on the offensive when I see an opening. Despite the normally cold climate of the South Pole right now it's sweltering with all the flames being thrown around. Out of the corner of my eye I can occasionally see my teachers, or wardens really, judging me, criticizing my every move. I know what their probably saying too, "She's powerful but shows no restraint", "she's out of control", "She's too dangerous to be allowed outside". I know, I've heard it before, but I don't care what they say, only one person's opinion actually matters to me, Katara's.

As I'm fighting my opponents I know that two of the three are still up and right now it's in a momentary lull in combat, the calm before the storm, the tension is so thick it's suffocating, but this is what I live for, this is all I've trained for, this is my life. I brace myself, eyes darting back and forth, keeping constant watch on both my opponents so they don't catch me off guard. I'm ready for the slightest sign of movement, ready to strike.

Then out of the corner of my eye I see a flash of purple light, a distortion in the air from intense heat, and a flick of movement. From there instinct takes over, I don't even need to think about it, I spin around and hurl a fireball behind me at full strength, and full expecting the person to deflect or block my attack I move to send more fire at them with a kick, only to be stopped by the sickening sound of someone screaming for their life.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

It takes me a moment to realize it but all three of my sparing partners are already accounted for, as is everyone else, nobody who was supposed to by nearby was where the figure had been, and when that realization struck my heart stopped, my body froze, time slows to a crawl, I couldn't think, I could only turn back to the figure and watch.

There I see the figure, engulfed in flames, being burned alive by my fire. I can see as the flames consume their body how their skin melts, how their face contorts in sheer agony at feeling their entire body being immolated by my fire. I can see the pain, and the fear in their eyes, well what's left of their eyes, and I can see them attempt to put out the fire themselves by dropping on the ground and rolling, but it's a futile effort, my fire is too hot to simply be put out like that.

While I'm frozen like a statue the healers react by throwing water on the stranger, finally putting them out, but by then they had stopped screaming, I don't know whether it's because they're dead or just unconscious. I pray to the spirits it's the latter.

They had taken the stranger to the medical station, and the best healers, especially Katara, had worked on the stranger till night. At this point the stranger had stabilized, they weren't in immediate danger of dying, but they there were in a coma. They had also discovered the stranger was a girl, so it's more like she was in a coma.

Because of me. I thought to myself.

A couple days later I was sitting across from her in the room she was put in, just looking at her, praying to the spirits that she would get better, that she would wake up, that this was all just a dream and that I would wake up. But no, this nightmare was reality, all my teachers were completely right about me, I'm too violent, out of control, unrestrained. I can't go out into the world yet, I'm too dangerous, I'm no avatar, I'm a monster that hurts innocent bystanders because she can't control herself. Someone who uses violence as a first resort.

Even master Tenzin wouldn't allow me to learn air bending yet. He had come by earlier only to tell me that I can't start my air bending training yet because things in Republic city are getting too dangerous for me. Despite what he said I know the real reason he won't teach me is because he heard about the incident with the stranger and he thinks I'm too dangerous and out of control to learn air bending, let alone go out to the city.

It's telling really, even the master of air bending, the element of freedom, doesn't think I should be free.

I deserve to be locked up in this place, I'm a threat to everyone around me.

Suddenly I realized that there was a faint glow in the room, at first I thought it might be sunlight coming in from the windows, as the room was dark with no lights on. But then as I looked up I realized that the glow was coming from the girl, it was leaking out from the bandages that covered her burnt body. I had no idea what was going on, and frankly, it scared me a little bit.

All over her body the bandages were stretched tight, and some even snapped and tore themselves open, revealing what should have been burnt, melted, skin, but instead it revealed light. Soon the glow faded away and the room became and quiet and dark once again.

For two whole seconds.

"GHUUHHH!" She gasped as she lurched forward sitting upright, taking in a deep breath of air.

Her eyes shot open, and for a moment it looked like her irises were glowing, like two molten gold rings in a sea of darkness. At first it was all I could see of her, but soon my eyes adjusted to the darkness again, and her eyes no longer glowed.

She seemed to be grumbling to herself about something as she ripped all the bandages off her face and arms. I was still too stunned at what I was witnessing to do anything about it, had I been competent I might have insisted that she stay in bed and get her rest.

She got up from the bed and started to look around the room in the darkness, looking for something, all while muttering to herself and removing the bandages on her arms. Suddenly she stopped with her back turned to me and just froze.

She slowly turned around and looked me straight in the eye and said, " oooohhhh,… hey there…um…you. How much exactly did you just see of…that?"

Her voice was still somewhat rough and dry, but considering she had been burned alive it sounded pretty good, which only worked to sustain my stunned state. The only words I could get out were, "I…uh…you…glowy…how?"

"Oh, great, so all of it then. Wonderful, wonderful." She said sarcastically, anxious displeasure at this unforeseen turn of events evident in her voice.

"Sooooo, I'm gonna ask you to not scream at the top of your lungs, 'cause I just wanna let you know that I'm not here to hurt you, OK? So just calm down, and let's have a nice conversation, and maybe I can get some clothes."

You, hurt me? I'm the one who almost killed you! She must not know that it was me! If she does, will she attack me? Try and get revenge for my unprovoked attack? Will she fear me?

All these thoughts ran through my mind as I tried to think of to say and do. At first I thought of just covering up the fact that I scarred her, but then I decided that it was better to be honest and face my punishment up front, I deserved it after all.

"I'm sorry" I said shakily while bowing to show my sincerity.

"Whoa whoa whoa, sorry for what?"

"I…uh…was the one who…um…burned you." I said cautiously before rushing out the rest. "I didn't meant too, I just saw a flash of movement behind me, thought it was one of my opponents and reacted, I didn't mean for you to get hurt, but I'll gladly take any punishment you find suitable."

"Wait, you did that?!" She said shocked, but surprisingly with no anger in her words, just surprise and curiosity.

"Uh…yes?" I said, shaken by how well this girl seemed to be taking it.

"Aren't you...mad?" I asked tentatively

She simply shrugged in response and said, "Nah" Casually, as if I had done no more than accidentally bump into her.

"Wh-bu-how? Why not?! I roasted you alive! Shouldn't you be a little more concerned about it?" I asked incredulously. I couldn't understand how someone could just shrug off being burned alive, being almost killed, even if it was an accident.

"Eh, it's not the worst thing that's ever happened to me. Not even the worst time I've been roasted." SHe explained again, just as casually with a flipant shrug. I even heard her mutter, " Shit, I even have all my limbs this time."

Her explanation threw me off, leaving me stunned for a few seconds while I just processed what she said.

She said this isn't the worst thing that's ever happened to her. How is that even possible? As far as I know being burned alive sounds like the most painful way to die. And that's another thing! How is she even alive let alone fully healed! Even after years and years of water healing she should still have been covered in horrendous burns! And yet...if I didn't see it myself I'd never believe it. I thought to myself as my mind raced with the possible explanations. I wasn't someone who generally thought things through much, I admit that, but even to me this seemed to be...odd.

I didn't really know how to approach this really. I haven't really talked to too many people, especially new people, so my social skills are a bit lacking. Not only that but my teachers never really trained my for anything like this. All they really seemed to do was teach me how to fight. That being said, I will admit that I've rarely objected to that.

However, while I was simply stunned by her reactions and frozen in fear and nervousness for how to go about this, she was not.

"Yeah, I'm not particularly angry at you or anything, I was just a little caught off guard. I mean, shoot, I'm more interested in how the hell you did that than swearing revenge on you for burning me. Besides, it's not like any permanant damage was done, right? No harm, no foul." She said after a couple seconds, shaking me out of my stupor.

One thing in particular stood out to me, however, in her statement.

She doesn't know how I set her on fire? Isn't it obvious? Fire bending. I thought to myself.

"I used fire bending" I answered cautiously

"Fire bending?" She seemed confused and doubtful of this answer

"Yes, fire bending"

"And that is…?"

I was shocked. She didn't know what fire bending was.

She doesn't know what fire bending is? How? Does she even know what bending is?

"You know, Fire bending". And I make my point by holding up my right hand in front of my face and lighting it on fire.

The fire bathes the entire room in light and I finally get to see the strange girl before me, and what I see makes me gasp and widen my eyes in surprise. She is unlike anyone I have ever seen before.

People from the water tribes tend to have a dark tan skin tone, at least compared to the people from other nations. One time I heard a white lotus sentry compare it to caramel in color, I don't really know what that is though, Katara never let me have any. If my skin was like caramel, though, than hers was as dark as the black coffee I saw the sentries drinking, darker than anyone else's that I've ever seen, ever, and that's what struck me most immediately, her black skin.

Then I gazed at her brown eyes, they were looking at me with a look of sudden understanding, like what I had just done reminded her what fire bending was or something.

Then I noticed her toned, muscular, body, taking note of how the bandages she was wrapped in were tightly covering her body. She was taller than me, probably just as muscular, but her skin was glistening, covered in what kind of looked like sweat, but thicker.

Her hair was pitch black, blending in with the darkness of the room and her skin, but against the white bandages it was easy to tell that it was slightly beyond shoulder length, it was messy and disorganized, tangled up in its thick, course, curly self.

"Oooh! Fire magic! Ahhh, okay, that makes sense" She said, finally understanding what I was talking about, which knocked me out of my daze.

Wait, fire magic? That's not…no it's fire bending! What is she talking about?

"No no no, not magic, Fire Bending." I corrected

She looked at me skeptically with one brow raised, like I had just said the stupidest thing in the world, which was ironic because she was the one who said the stupid thing.

"Fire bending?"

"Yes"

"Bullshit" she deadpanned

"What!" I said, offended at how she talked like she knew more about something I have been doing for my entire life.

"That's" She said, pointing at my burning hand, "Magic"

"No, it's bending. Bending!" I said frantically point at my burning hand with my left one to help get my point across. It didn't work.

"Bending is something you do to a straw, or a joint, or the rules." She said gesticulating at the absurdity of my claim. "Setting your hand on fire or throwing fireballs is magic! Or fancy science."

"Bending is not Magic! It is an ancient traditional art that uses your own chi to create fire, or move water, earth, or air!"

"Yeah! Magic!"

"Not Magic!"

"How is that not magic exactly?"

"I just explained that!"

"No, you said what 'bending' was, what I want to know is how that is not magic?" She said using air quotes

"Because Magic is….

...um….

...crap." I said, furious at first before I realized I didn't really know how to counter her argument. "It's just not the same!" I said stubbornly

"Wow, great argument, clearly you are a master of words." She said flatly before giving me a slow clap.

"Shut up!"

"How 'bout this, I'll call it magic, and you can keep calling it 'bending', you know, tomato tomato." She suggested as a compromise.

"What? Tomato tomato?" I said, not understanding the phrase.

"Do you even know your abc's?" she asked mocking me. Unfortunately I didn't know what she was talking about

"My what?"

"Holy. Fucking. Shit, you are the dumbest piece of shit I've ever met." She said stunned

"Shut up!"

"Whatever, that just means that you'll call it one thing, I call it something else, because where I come from that's magic, but according to you they call it 'bending' here, so I'll respect your customs. Well, some of them at least."

"Oh! Really? Okay, I guess I can agree to that."

"Unless it turns out you're an idiot."

"Hey!"

"Well, now that that's cleared up, I will forgive you for burning me alive on one condition."

"Okay…what's the condition?" I asked nervously, worried at what she would make me do.

"You and me gonna have a duel."

"Really?" I questioned, surprised at the surprisingly agreeable condition, but soon I found me confidence again. "Didn't I already kick your butt once?"

She gave a short snort of amusement before replying, "Sure, if you want to think of performing an unprovoked surprise attack on someone as a duel, then sure."

My face fell from its smug smirk once I realized she had a point.

Well, she has me there

"I mean I usually call something like that an ambush, but whatever. If you want to consider that your 'win', then consider this a rematch."

"Okay, fine, you got yourself a deal."

"Now on to more important issues."

"Like?"

"Well first of all, I need clothes, cause I feel a bit naked right now." She said gesturing to her bandaged body, which was, in fact, otherwise naked, and despite her words she didn't actually look too uncomfortable.

I, however, after hearing her mention how she felt naked couldn't help but have my eyes roam her body to confirm that. As this happened I felt a strong blush cover my face and felt the urge to hide my face and look away

"Uh, yeah, sure, I'll go get you some."

After I came back with some of my clothes for her to wear since she looked like she was about my size, just a little taller. So when she put them on they fit her for the most part, the shirt was a little short and showed a bit of her midriff, but she didn't seem to mind.

She told me when she was done so I could turn around before she began to thank me.

"Well, thanks for letting me borrow some of your wardrobe…" She hesitated and paused, and then a strange look came over her face, as if she had forgotten something important. "Shit, I don't know your name."

"Oh, right. Yeah, we kind of skipped introductions."

"Yeah well, being set on fire tends to do that to a person." She joked, and in response I pouted.

"I said I was sorry!"

"Yeah, and after I exact my revenge in a 'friendly rematch', I will have forgiven you." she said with a grin that held mysterious and not entirely pure intentions.

At the way she said "friendly rematch" I suddenly became concerned about what she was actually planning to do to me in the duel.

"But enough of that, my name is Sarah." She said introducing herself

"My name's Korra, and I'm the avatar" I replied, introducing myself with a smug smirk. As much as my teachers told me humility was important, I couldn't help but feel a surge of pride about being the avatar, and I loved the reactions that some people gave me when they discovered I was the avatar.

While I wasn't exactly expecting her to bow down and grovel at my feet from my revelation, her reaction was somewhat…unexpected.

She raised an eyebrow at the mention of the avatar.

"Uhuh, okay, well it's good to meet you 'avatar' Korra." Sarah said mocking me

"You don't believe me do you?!" I said, irritated that she was doubting me, again

"Pft, whaaaaaat? Noooo, I totally believe that you're the 'avatar'." She scoffed with a dismissive hand wave.

"I'm telling the truth, I am the avatar!"

"No no, I totally believe you." She said unconvincingly.

"Fine! I'll prove it!"

As soon as I said this I bent a stream of water from a nearby bowl and formed it into a sphere above my left hand.

Hah! This proves I'm the Avatar! I already showed her my fire bending, actually I already used it on her, but by water bending I'm showing her that I can bend two different elements! Something that only the Avatar can do! It's foolproof!

I put on my biggest, most smug smirk I could, and waited for Sarah to realize the error of her ways and apologize. Sarah had other plans.

"…" Sarah just stared at me, not in wonder, not in amazement, not in reverence. She was looking at me expectantly, as if she expected me to do something more, something that actually proved I was the avatar.

After a few seconds of silence my smug smirk turned into an impatient glare.

What's wrong with her! I'm bending two elements! Something only the Avatar can do! Just accept I'm the Avatar already!

"Cool." Is all she eventually said.

"Cool?"

"It's a…neat trick."

"A neat trick!" I replied, furious at how she was completely underwhelmed.

"Yeah, well, using different types of spells isn't really that amazing of a feat for a mage."

"I've never heard of Any Of That!" I responded angrily. As I did my emotions bleed out into my bending and the ball of water react violently. Part of froze, creating a ball of ice in the center, while everything around it began to angrily twist and turn as it obeyed my commands. Parts of it even began to boil into steam.

She was about to respond when she noticed what I was doing, at that's when she went wide eyed.

"Whoa, okay, now that is special. Control magic is pretty hard to do for most mages." And under her breath she said, "At least the human ones."

"Wait, so me fire bending and water bending doesn't impress you at all, but me doing this does?" I asked skeptically, still confused as to these terms she was using to describe what I was doing.

"Well yeah, that actually might explain why you don't know what spells are, or what mages are, but then again I'm not really the expert on any of that magic stuff."

"Yeah, what are you talking about, I've never heard of magic explained in such a detailed way, it sounds like you are an expert."

"Well I'm only well informed because I kind of have to be, you see I'm a metal mage, by which I mean I am an expert in metal control magic." She explained

I used what little she had already explained to mentally translate what she had said.

"So you're a metal bender! I've never met one before!" I said excitedly, despite passing my earth bending mastery, I hadn't learned metal bending, I hadn't even met a metal bender before, but I had heard tons of stories of about Toph and her metal benders.

"Yup. You want a demonstration?" She asked with a grin, apparently drink in my enthusiasm.

I nodded emphatically, hoping she would give me my first real glimpse of what metal bending can do. SHe nodded back in acknowledgment na dheld her hand out to the other metal chair in the room.

The chair began to rattle and shake before the the back rest of it was violently ripped away from the rest of the chair, the metal shrieking from the totruos treatment. The metal backrest flew into her outstretched hand and folded around itself. By the time she stopped bending it it hand become a tangled knot of metal."

"Cool." I said simply, stunned and amazed at what I had seen, which seemed to please Sarah as her grin grew even wider.

"To answer your earlier question, spells are basic commands mages can use to control the world, like making a ball of water or fire, but it can't do complicated stuff like what you were doing when you were fiddling with that ball of water. Control magic is about using magic to control the world directly, kind of. It's like the difference between telling someone to do something and doing it yourself." She explained, continuing on be going back to my earlier statements and questions.

"For example, you can tell someone to build you a sculpture, and they will, and from your perspective it will be pretty easy, just tell them what to do and they do it. That's a spell. With control magic you would be the one to make the sculpture, and it would take longer, it would take more effort, and it might not look as good, but if you're skilled enough at it then it will be much better than the one you just paid for."

"Do you know what mean?" Sarah said, finishing up her explanation, although she said it with a kind on accent such that it sounded more like, "Ya-naw-mean?

"Um… yeah I think I get it." I said, finally getting something of a handle on what she was saying, but I was still somewhat confused, I had never heard of spells, or any of this stuff about magic before, and if it was the same as bending, then shouldn't I know about it?

Maybe I should try harder to convince Katara to let me go out and see the world, if I know this little about bending then what else don't I know? How can I bring balance to a world I don't know or understand?

"Oh, wait, when you used fire magic, was that control magic too?"

"Yes?" I said, kind of unsure of it myself. This whole magic thing was still something a little bit difficult for me to wrap my head around

"Well shit, now that is special, I guess that's what you meant when you said you were the avatar."

"Oh, well at least you understand now."

"Yeah… So what are you the avatar of?"

"What do you mean? I'm not the avatar of anything." I said, once again not understanding what she meant.

"Wha – how can you not be the avatar of anything? That's not how avatars work, it's like if you said you were a servant, but nobody was your master. It's part of the definition of the word avatar. If you're an avatar you have to have a master, or something you represent or something, right?"

"No, not really, as the avatar it's my job to keep balance between everything, I don't think I'm really representative of something."

"Actually you may have just answered your own question, if you're supposed to keep balance, then maybe you're the avatar of balance."

"I guess that makes sense. In any case, since you're a metal bender can you teach me how to metal bend? I've always wanted to learn but none of my teachers were able to teach it to me, I've never met a metal bender before."

"Oh? Well I don't really think I can teach you metal magic, that's not how it works, you have to have the initial talent for a particular element before you can use control magic for that element, most people can only use one. You, being an elemental, er, avatar, that is, can control two elements apparently, water and fire." She replied sadly

"You can't do any other types of control magic, at least from I know about magic, which admittedly, isn't a lot." She admitted

"But my teachers told me that as the avatar I'm supposed to be able to bend all the elements, I can already bend earth, fire, and water, and I'm supposed to learn air bending next." I said confused.

I thought everyone knew that the avatar could bend all four elements?

"Oh! Really? I've never heard of anyone being able to control all the elements, not to mention more than two. I've heard of people being able to replicate the control of multiple elements, but that's not the same thing."

"But then again I'm not exactly an expert on how magic works and what you can do with it, maybe you're a fancy avatar-thing that lets you do fancy magical bullshit or something thanks to even more fancy magical bullshit." She said with a shrug.

"Wait, so you've never heard of the avatar?"

"Fuck no"

"How?"

"What do you mean?"

"How can you not have heard of the avatar? Everyone's heard of the avatar, it's like a famous legend or story, except true!"

"Obviously not famous enough." She retorted, which served to get under my nerves.

"What?" I said with one eyebrow twitching in frustration

"Yeah, maybe here the avatar is super famous, but I have never heard about it, and I've been all over the world."

"You know what, that actually brings me to another point, where in the hell am I?" She continued, gesturing to the room around her.

"Oh! After I …uh…nearly…killed you, the white lotus sentries and healers took you into this healing room to, well, keep you alive."

"Yes but where is this."

"The white lotus compound"

She sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose before saying, "I meant where in the fuck am I on Earth!"

"Oh, the South Pole."

"…

…

…

…

Bullshit" She deadpanned after a moment of silence.

"WHAT!?" I said, frustrated at how the girl seemed to call everything I knew for a fact as true for my entire life, bullshit. It was incredibly insulting and rude.

"Oh, wait, was that sarcasm? Sorry, because if it was, you suck at it."

"NO! IT WAS NOT SARCASM!"

"Oh shit! You were serious?"

"YES!"

"Then I go back to my first statement."

"Which was…?"

"Bullshit"

"ARGH!" I threw up my hands in frustration.

Why won't she believe anything I say, this is my home, my life, I know what I'm talking about for spirits sake!

I took a moment and sighed before saying, "why don't you believe me?"

"Because no one lives in the south pole." She said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"What?"

"Yeah, nobody lives in Antarctica. Hell no one even lives near Antarctica, except maybe a research station or two."

"What? No, that's, I don't know what you're talking about. Sure not as many people live in the South Pole as the North Pole, but the southern water tribe is still here." I said, trying to wrap my head around the things that she was saying, and it seemed like she was trying to do the exact same thing.

"Nobody lives in the North Pole either! What the Hell are you talking about?!"

"I'm talking about the Northern and Southern Water tribes, the Southern one lives around the south pole, while the Northern Water tribe has it's cities around the North Pole."

She was about to give a response, but then something clicked inside her head, something that made sense, but something she was too scared to believe.

"Do you have a map of the world?" Sarah asked nervously, obviously worried about what she might find, and scared that she might be right.

"Um…no"

"I do." A new voice said, entering into the conversation, it was an old and well-worn voice that I knew well. It was the voice of my mentor, Katara

A/n: Iv2

This story has been in the making for a while now, and just recently I decided to allow it onto the interent.

'Cause I'm a masochist like that.

In any case, I should probably inform you of a few warnings regarding this story.

First, the rating.

It's rated M for several reasons.

One: Cursing. There is a whole lot of that shit in this bitch. Not universally used, mind you.

What that means is that not everyone curses equally. In Mass Effect terms, some people will be like Jack, and others will be like Samara.

Second: Dark themes. It's not going to be sunshine and rainbows all the time.

It will be sunshine and rainbows sometimes though, but that's because you need proper balance to keep everything fresh.

If everything's always happy all the time, then it gets dull and meaningless.

If everything's dark and depressing all the time, then the same thing happens

By having proper balance both the good times and the bad times stand out more.

That being said...I am something of a sadistic bastard. Keep that in mind.

Third: Everyone's favorite, putting things where they don't belong.

...

...

That...that doesn't mean sex by the way.

Will there be sex?

Maybe.

I don't really know if I feel like writing those, what are they called?

Lemons?

The fuck are they called Lemons?

The fuck does a yellow piece of citrus have to do with coitus?

I'll probably just say, "And then there was sex" and move on, but that might change. Don't know yet.

Will the actual act of sex occur?

Yeah

Will I write about it in vivid detail?

Probably not.

But that's besides the point.

When I said putting things in places they don't belong, I didn't mean sex.

Hate to tell you this, but a penis belongs in a vagina. Some might argue an anus too, but that's besides the point.

You know what doesn't belong in a vajay-jay?

A morning star.

or a cattle prod.

And if all goes according to plan, then that happens...maybe.

So those are mostly all the reasons why it's rated M

On another note, OC's will have major impact in this story.

I've read stories were the OC basically just tags along adding certain bits of commentary here and there.

I always hate in when that happens.

I kind of feel like it's...well it's a lot of things, including, a lack of creativity as well as a lack of good writing.

Adding one person can change the whole direction things go. That new person could convince them to go right instead of left, thereby changing everything, and so on and so forth.

I'm not saying it'll be nothing but OC's or anything, but they will be making significant changes. Both now, and in the past.

In summary: Shit be different, Shit be cray, Shit be dark

Oh, and finally, and most importantly, this story is AU

That being said, in this case it doesn't exactly translate to Alternate Universe.

Here it's more like...

Altered Universe.

Basically this was cannon ATLA until the Kyoshi Incedent.

Basically what happened was that an external third party from a rather familiar place came and made some changed.

Accidentally, of course, they weren't really trying to do anything in particular to this world, but it basically cause a butterfly effect.

Except, instead of a butterfly...

...Godzilla.

So yeah, keep that in mind.

Or...you know...don't.