Kateki

Prologue

I keep stalling out,

I just can't keep up

There's alarming doubt

Am I good enough?

But you keep coming around

To convince me it's still far from over...

- Mute Math, Stall Out

-

Ryan knew as soon as he opened his eyes that he was in deep trouble.

He was surrounded by clouds. Clouds in a peach-colored sky. That meant dream sequence, in the language of the show, something that he was pleased had not changed thanks to his being here. And there was only reason for him, a non main character, what some might call an original character, to have a dream sequence.

Someone up here was angry.

The someone in particular was a red-robed man with a long white beard. He wore his hair in a top knot. His gaze was steady, but Ryan found that he could bear its weight.

"Avatar Roku," Ryan said. He bowed. He couldn't think of anything else to do.

"Ryan. Do you know why you are here?"

He had a feeling he did. But he didn't want to just come out and say so. This wasn't the time to risk being wrong.

"No, sir, I do not."

"You are here, Ryan, because of what has been happening in the Mortal World. The world that you have interfered with."

Ryan nodded. He hadn't had a clue that this was how it would happen. He'd really thought, when he'd started fiddling around with the television in his garage, that it would be some kind of random thing he did to make up for the fact that one of his friends had moved away.

Seriously, who knew?

"I didn't mean for it to happen," he said.

"Be that as it may, you are not exempted. Not only have you entered this world, but your brother. And your friend."

John and Elle. One practically a Marine, the other a brilliant scholar. Neither one of them being particularly inclined to see him at the moment.

"We've made a mess of things," Ryan said.

"That may be understating it."

Maybe it was. None of them had ended up together with each other. John had crashed down where the Avatar was. He had journeyed with them through all of their adventures, up to the North Pole.

Ryan had struck the deck of Zuko's ship. He'd demonstrated sufficient martial knowledge to warrant training as a bodyguard for the erstwhile prince.

And Elle? Elle was Azula's now. Completely and utterly. Somewhere along the line she'd been brainwashed and was using her knowledge of the modern world to turn the war in the Fire Nation's favor. That also included her knowledge of the show.

She had been a brilliant scholar.

"I'll admit. I haven't handled this well at all."

The memories flashed in his mind. He'd tried to tell John to keep out of business. He'd tried to do the same to Elle, only she couldn't stay out of the affairs of this world. Zuko had wanted to kill her, he thought with a shudder. He'd come up with the better idea of kidnapping her, which had led to her being tied up in the forest for hours on end. Hence the brainwashing.

Which led to Jeong Jeong's capture. The imprisonment of Prince Zuko, which he had only foiled with Elle's sympathies. And the invasion of the North, with a fleet four times the size of the original designs.

And then John had figured out it was Ryan's fault. Fantastic.

"Do you know what will happen?" Roku asked.

"I don't. I don't know what's going to happen now. I know I'm supposed to keep the world as it should be, but this is too big." And Ryan felt it – like a heavy fist wrapped around his heart. He felt something cold and dead in his mind. "I mean. I'm not an Avatar. I don't have power, I don't have royal backing, I don't have resources. I just. I don't think I."

"You are right," Roku said. "I have not called you here to condemn you. You were ignorant. You acted in ignorance. You did not mean for all of this to happen. And so I am going to help you."

Ryan held his breath. He didn't know what to say, and it sounded too good to be true. What was coming?

Avatar Roku breathed in – and blew fire at Ryan.

And for a split second, Ryan thought, this was it. He was going to die, lost in an alternate dimension, not on a battlefield or a chopping block but cremated by an angry ghost. Not exactly how he would have pictured going.

But as the flames wreathed him, something else happened. The cold, dead grip on his heart loosened. A light roared in his mind, and where there had been no hope there now danced figments of what might be ideas.

"This flame will burn within you," the Avatar said in a million voices. "It is determination. It will glow all the more brightly as the days grow darker, and you will not be overcome. Now go!"

-

Ryan woke up to the cold. This ship was always cold in the mornings. But instead of pulling the covers over his head, he got up and breathed in. He had work to do.

-

My fondest hope is that whomever should read this will not go back and read the preceding story. Because honestly? It's not much good. I had a hard time finding direction with it. One minute it was a slapstick comedy kind of thing and the next it was all super dark and serious before going back to something wry and in-between.

I mean, if you want to, I can't stop you. I just think you'd be wasting your time. And I learned enough that I think this will be better. So.

Avatar: The Last Airbender is copyrighted to Bryan Konietzko and Michael DiMartino. I write this as a humble fan without any expectation of profit.