Genjitsu
Note: The sequel to 'Ninjitsu' (found at the Avatar: The Last Airbender section of ff dot net)
Disclaimer: I do not own A:TLA or AD:JL
PS: You're probably going to want to read the prequel first (I'll re-edit it later)
Full summary: Years had passed since Homecoming. Jake, now a sophomore at NYU, can finally take a breather. But not for long. Strange and supernatural occurences all around the world, unpredictable storms, widespread chaos and disaster, disappearances of ancient artifacts, it seemed as if armageddon was coming! For Jake, it all seemed to be connected to the artifacts found in the tombs of his ancestors in Hateruma. Someone was trying to destroy the future from the past. The only clue the American Dragon has is a scroll that keeps scrawling indecipherable messages in red ink by itself. He lost contact with his grandfather. Jake needs to get him back and solve the riddle, but to no avail. As a last-ditch attempt to save the future and the past, he finds another magical item which can imitate other kinds and, making a duplicate Eucronos Hourglass, goes back to Zuko and Katara's time to ask for their help and bring them to the future. But trying to make the two teenagers from the ancient world fit in to the modern one, trying to solve the riddle before it's all too late, and preventing future disasters from happening isn't Jake's only problem for long. Rose came to NYU.
Prologue
Years.
He honestly hadn't remembered how long, but it had been years since the Aztec Skulls were destroyed, he'd technically lost Rose, and then they parted from Hong Kong.
It still hurt, but at least the pain was bearable now.
Jake himself had begun to focus more and finally passed 8th grade, no more Rotwood as the reward, and then progressed throughout high school.
Now, he was at NYU majoring in Ancient World History.
Trixie went off to study and travel abroad with her father and Spud…no one honestly knows what happened to him after he told them that his family was moving.
Hayley, being the smarty-pants she was, had skipped a bunch of grades and was now attending Harvard majoring in 4-dragons-knows how many subjects.
At least he was finally away from his dad; he was honestly getting annoying and he still couldn't comprehend why his mother hadn't divorced him yet.
In act of, in Jake's opinion, favoritism, his parents chose to move closer to Harvard and his grandpa, with Fu Dog, moved their shop to a place closer to NYU. The repair shop now doubled as a noodle shop; a place for quick oriental meals and business was going fairly well.
With a little help from workers from the magical dimension, of course.
Brad decided to go to some other college where he thought all he would have to do was play sports and he could stay there and flirt with the 'attractive' girls.
Too bad that near the end of Senior Year, Trixie, Spud and Jake temporarily stole his file and restated that he wanted to go to a very strict all-male college.
It had also been years since the tombs of his ancestors were found on Hateruma.
Most of the artifacts, since the archaeologists on the dig were sponsored by the institution, were now resting in the New York Smithsonian.
Jake didn't see it often anymore, particularly since his grandfather didn't drag him there so he would learn about his history.
He'd learned enough history when he was visiting the ancient times and suggested to his grandfather that there wasn't much of a difference in the world, besides that the history of most of Asia was altered by his visit and bringing of modern things to the Avatar World, and things would better be left untouched. And then he honestly pulled a leaf from his grandfather's book; he said a proverb.
So his grandpa was proud of him and Jake would go to the shop when he had time and helped his grandfather or continued his lessons as the American Dragon.
Despite that the Huntsclan had been erased from history, there were still threats to the magical world (mainly Magical Creatures fighting among one another and the fact that people like Rotwood were still trying to search for proof that magical creatures were real) but a lot less to the point that Jake could make the honor roll in High School and got into NYU with a high-enough test score and had a well-rounded application for college.
Ever since Rose, even though a lot of other girls have asked him out, he usually refused or made up an excuse when he didn't want to seem like an egotistical jerk.
Life was normal for him.
Life was balanced.
In short, life for Jake was cold, unwelcoming and very boring.
Today was no different than his usual Tuesday; get up, get dressed, get ready, and get into class.
His first class was Myths of the Ancient World, where they had to hand in an essay. As he sat down, whispers and giggles broke from various groups of girls who were sitting close to him.
Ever since he and Zuko switched bodies and then switched back, Jake had continued what Zuko had started so he was no longer a skinny, pale-skinned Asian he was always stereotyped to be.
"Now. Let us begin again where we left off; with Japanese—." The teacher was cut off with a loud crash of thunder and the lights flicking on and off rapidly.
Whispers of concern and surprise rippled throughout the class and Jake felt a small vibration in his jean pocket.
His grandpa was calling him.
Taking out his cell phone, a present from his parents when he turned 14, he answered it.
"Jake; get down to the New York Smithsonian now." His grandfather's voice began to crackle and break up over the phone.
Suddenly, the lights seemed to have exploded and the room plunged into darkness.
Taking advantage of the pandemonium and his eye of the dragon, Jake 'Dragon Up-ed' and slipped out of a small window near the roof of the building while it was still pitch dark outside.
Violent winds nearly blew him back into the wall and heavy rains began to pour down in a torrid rate.
Still, Jake began to fly forwards.
The weatherman had predicted a warm day; it was nearly the end of August and winter-like storms shouldn't have even begun. What was happening?
Maybe his grandpa had some answers.
Surprisingly, the doors to the New York Smithsonian were still open despite the sudden storm.
Running in after switching back to his human form, obviously; since people would probably freak out if they saw a dragon entering the museum, Jake saw Long Shu (A/N: When I was writing Ninjitsu, I didn't know that his name was actually Lao Shi) waiting for him.
"The Ancient World section, now!" His grandfather said before Jake could even take a breath.
The two ran, Long Shu was in surprisingly good shape, and upon arriving at the section, the atmosphere instantly turned ominous.
Looking to his left, Jake spotted an old life size painting which came from the Fire Palace which showed of the wedding of Fire Lord Zuko and his bride; Lady Katara of the Southern Water Tribe.
About 5 feet across from the painting, there were the near mint condition wedding gowns, also shown in the painting.
But something was wrong with them.
It was as if the painting was erasing itself; the blue and violets and whites of Katara's gown were being blurred and the color was absorbed into the ancient rice paper.
Jake remembered that her gown, in the painting, from the sash was at least 3 feet long.
Now, looking at it, it looked to be cut off by more than four inches.
Another noticeable difference was that Fire Lord Zuko's face was becoming more and more obscured; as if a shadow was in the painting and slowly inching across his visage.
The wedding gowns also looked to be in synch with the painting; Katara's gown was now strangely deteriorating and losing its color, despite everything the museum tried to do to fix it, and Zuko's dress robes just seemed to become more transparent, just vanishing, before one's very own eyes!
What was happening?
"Jake! Get over here!" his grandpa commanded.
Turning and going to where his grandfather was, Jake saw through the glass display case that a small scroll which strangely couldn't be opened had somehow unraveled itself and a message was appearing like when you hold a message in invisible ink over fire.
The calligraphy was a very ancient one; it wasn't necessarily symbols, but it still didn't look like a writing system; it was like a mix between both.
All of it was written in bright red ink.
So what was it? A warning…or a plea for salvage?
"What do you think is happening, G?" Jake asked; calling Lao Shi the nickname he'd given him.
"I do not know for sure Jake, but it seems that someone is rewriting the future in the past." Long Shu began to fiddle with his beard; a habit Jake new that he would do only when he was very worried.
"So what can we do about it?" Jake asked; turning to the newly written message and trying to memorize the markings on the scroll.
"Do not worry about it; you should go back to college and continue your studies." Long Shu told him.
"But G—!" Jake shouted incredulously.
"Do as I say; I will take care of it. You should focus on being a student now; the threat of the huntsclan is over, young dragon, and this should not be a burden to you. I will recover the Eucronos Hourglass and go back into the past. You, in the meantime, will not interfere with anything and will do nothing except for helping the Magical Creatures when needed. Understood?" Long Shu said firmly.
Jake wanted to protest, but sighed and nodded.
"You'd best get back; your school has probably regained power by now." His grandfather added.
Jake turned, still a bit pessimistic about the fact that he wasn't going on another adventure, and slugged away; not once looking back at his grandfather.
Long Shu sighed when he was sure that Jake was gone.
He hated to see Jake like this, but it was for the best that he did not interfere with the time-space-history continuum again.
Besides, he has probably had enough of being the American Dragon; he has deserved a break and a chance to be a regular person for once in his life.
Long Shu pulled out the Eucronos Hourglass, which he had brought it along just in case, and turned the dials.
He put the necklace on and with a flash, he vanished.
If you're wondering when Zuko and Katara come in, it'll be a couple more chapters. In the next few chapters, Jake tries to solve the riddle/code himself but has no luck and that'll be the main focus for the time being.
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