Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted material shown herein. They are the property of their respective creators and associated companies. I make no money off of this whatsoever. I write only for my own personal enjoyment and for those readers who enjoy my work.

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One Year Later, The Anti-Avatar Complex, Cell Block D, Zihao's P.O.V

Something was seriously wrong.

That was the only thing he could think about as he saw every solider and guard within eyesight moving around like their lives depended on it. It had caught his attention almost immediately since most times the guards were more casual in their movements and never walked faster than a brisk walk unless a prisoner was causing trouble. Seeing as how Xifeng had been in solitary ever since she started a fight with him, he didn't think anyone else was in the mood to cause trouble. Certainly none of them were strong enough to get the guards to move around like this. Seeing Guiren about to pass by his cell, he reached out between the bars and grabbed the guard's arm as he passed by determined to find out what was going on.

"What's all the commotion about, Guiren?" He asked politely but firmly, causing the guard to stop trying to yank his arm free.

"Looks like this project's been blacklisted by Fire Lord Ozai," Guiren replied with eyes that saw the wisdom of answering truthfully to the young man. "The entire place is surrounded by infantry and tanks! We're setting up a defense line to try and hold them off! Now let go!"

"Defense line!? Can't we just surrender?" He asked, not knowing why everyone was getting ready to fight people from the same military.

"Surrender!? Being blacklisted means Fire Lord Ozai has decided to shut this project down and, considering the stuff that went on here, it also probably means the soldiers outside have been given 'kill everyone' orders." Guiren replied, looking at Zihao as though the very idea of surrender was ridiculous, "They're going to kill everyone here and then burn the place to the ground. Probably say that the 'brave' Fire Nation soldiers were sent here to obliterate a band of rebels or spies from the Earth Kingdom or something! No one will know the truth! Our only chance is to fortify our location and try to hold out as long as we can. With a little luck, if we hold out long enough the Fire Lord will see that this project is worth keeping around."

With that Guiren finally managed to free his arm so he could continue on to wherever he was going to but this was more due to the level of shock thrumming through Zihao than superior strength. For the past six years he'd been suffering in this hellhole of a place, told that the reason was so he could be made into a warrior capable of defeating the Avatar, and now he had been told it'd all be for nothing. Fire Lord Ozai had deemed this place expendable at the very least or a secret that needed to be buried at the very worst. He had given orders to the approaching soldiers to wipe out everyone and everything whether it was in the school above or the hidden complex below. People were going to die by the dozens, by fire and steel, until there was nothing left to tell the tale of what went on here or why.

Everyone would be erased from existence.

NO! I refuse to let it end like this! He thought as he immediately performed the fire stream technique and aimed the blast at the lock on his cell door.

It took a while, the doors after all were designed to withstand firebending long enough for guards to come and deal with the prisoner, but eventually his managed to burn through the lock. With it gone he rammed his shoulder into the door, forcing it open despite the fact that he got some light burns from the lingering heat in the metal around the metal lock. Looking around, he was glad to see that none of the guards were reacting to his break out but he knew that he couldn't afford to waste time.

"Zihao? What are you doing?!" Lady Ursa asked, obviously surprised by his sudden actions.

"WE are getting out of here and we're taking as many people with us as we can safely manage!" He said keeping his eyes alert and his mind focused, "Now c'mon! We need to get out of here before the forces loyal to your former husband make it down here!"

Only waiting a moment to see if she would follow him, he immediately began going to work on the doors to some of the other cells in D block. He couldn't free everyone, obviously, since that would take forever so he focused on the cells that contained people he knew to be okay people or those he considered friends. Within twenty minutes, with the help of the newly freed inmates, he had successfully liberated the chosen few in blocks D and C who he believed to be worth saving and had now moved on to block A. He'd skipped cell block B because he knew that that was where the expendable sickos were kept, the soldiers who were, to put it mildly, 'mentally unstable', since there was no way he'd let that kind of evil out into the world. Once in cell block A, devoted to the female inmates, he could tell that most of them would be a handful to manage once they were coaxed outside of their cells. These ladies had probably been treated the worst of them all thanks to the fact that the guards assigned here weren't allowed to leave the complex for any reason. It sickened him to think about how some of the more amoral guards had chosen to satisfy their carnal appetites by raping and, in some cases, beating these women. Ranging in age from six years old to late forties, all of them had been treated like meat puppets to be used up like so much trash before being 'disposed of' when their usefulness ran out. As a result of their terrible treatment, most of the women cowered in their cells when he burned the door down and would not move from their cowering position at the back of the cell.

He could only spare five minutes per woman and in the end he was only able to get a third of them to leave their cells and follow him.

Fifteen out of a total of forty-five.

Damn.

It was as he was heading to free the last of his chosen prisoners that he could hear the others wondering what 'The Plan' was and how they were going to get out of here. He didn't have the heart to tell them the truth, that he had no plan, so he thought up a quickie one that might be enough to convince them to trust him.

"Once we get the last of the prisoners out of their cells, anyone here who can earthbend is going to use the Earth Tunneling technique to make us an escape route outta here." He explained as he saw his destination door in sight, "We can't trust any of the ways out that are already here, 'cause the Fire Nation soldiers outside probably already have them covered. With a little luck we can slip away before anyone knows we're gone."

While he could still hear some doubt in their voices, they looked like they'd follow him a little longer just to see how his tunneling plan worked out. Once he reached the door he remembered from his first visit into the underground facility beneath the front that was the Tiamat Academy, he quickly spun the wheel in the center of the door and pushed it open.

What he saw was not good at all.

Apparently the idea of being 'blacklisted' hadn't gone over very well with some of the guards and now they were trying to force the three dragons to fight for them. Their methods, yanking on the heavy chains and hurting them, however, were only making the majestic animals all the more hostile towards the Fire Nation soldiers. Nevertheless, with the majority of their bodies still tightly bound in metal, the dragons were losing their struggle of defiance and he could tell that their growing number of wounds was taking a toll on all three of them. The female blue dragon seemed the worse off of the three and apparently this was because she was using her body as a shield to protect her white and gold offspring as best she could. It was the red male dragon that was doing most of the offensive work and while this had him fairing better than his mate, he was still hurting. Anger rising within him, he threw himself over the railing to the main floor below, using what he could manage of the lessons he had learned to emit blasts of fire from his feet to lessen the impact of his landing. His arrival did not go unnoticed but he was in no state of mind to let them do anything about it and immediately began firing off a rapid barrage of fireballs at those soldiers holding the chains. With the arms of the men occupied with holding the thick chains, they were completely unable to defend themselves from the attack resulting in all of them being knocked to the ground.

No longer having their movements restrained, all three dragons took full advantage of this with the white and gold one taking to the air to bombard its tormentors from the air. The child's parents on the other hand, being too large to fly around in the chamber, emitted streams of fire from their mouths that overwhelmed the less skilled among the soldiers. Those with greater skill managed to divert the brunt of the blast to their sides and those cowards didn't waste any time counterattacking. Luckily his own firebending skills, aided by those few brave friends of his on the metal walkway above, was enough to force the fools to fight a battle on two fronts. For a time it looked like they would be successful in driving off the idiots but then the worst possible thing happened.

The doors on the other side of the room were blown off by a massive fire attack and the ones responsible for this soon charged in once the attack ended. It didn't take a genius to see that these soldiers belonged to the forces charged with obliterating all things connected to the Tiamat Academy and the Anti-Avatar project. Their armor was colored differently and was obviously of higher quality than those worn by the men stationed in the underground complex, providing the invading force with superior protection. As soon as these new arrivals finished taking stock of their targets, they began to rain fire down with greater ferocity than he had ever encountered before. He had learned much during his time here and, while he would have preferred a more… nurturing method, he nevertheless had attained a skill level comparable to a firebending master. While this did allow him to stay alive, it allowed him few opportunities to counterattack due to the large number of opponents he was faced with. Even with a common enemy swooping down on them, the guards and soldiers that had been attempting to bring the dragons under control still attacked him with everything they had. Did they think that they might be spared if they aided the invading forces? Probably.

The fools!

He could hear the other freed inmates crying out and yelling at him above him as the battle raged on. He wondered how they were fairing and if Lady Ursa and Kya were doing alright, considering the fact that they hadn't been trained as rigorously as he had been. It had been one of the things to determine who received the best training and who received the minimum training deemed necessary by Kurosaki. Once an element had been successfully integrated into a test subject and given time to settle, they were immediately tested to determine the strength level the person had in the new element. Those that were capable of manipulating earth, fire and water with the greatest level of power as well as skill were assigned to the more thorough bending lessons. Those that were barely able to bend at a level consistent with a commoner or a newly trained recruit were taught whenever the instructors were bullied by Kurosaki into teaching them. This, sadly, was the level that both Kya and Lady Ursa fell into so, while still able to bend competently, they were nowhere near the level of the forces assaulting them now. They had to finish saving the dragons and then flee as quickly as possible before they got bogged down by enemy soldiers to the point where they wouldn't go anywhere. Flipping into a series of Blazing Ring & Arc techniques, he managed to pull off the impossible and sweep most, if not all, of the soldiers on the same level as him off their feet completely. He was about to do the same with the invading forces when an almost deafening roar filled the air causing everything in the room to vibrate with its power. He turned his head towards the sound and saw one of the most tragic sights he'd see for a long while.

He watched as the male red dragon collapsed to the ground with several barbed spears lodged in its throat.

It was horrible beyond reason to watch it land for, as the creature hit the floor, some of the spears were driven even deeper into the animal's body with a few poking out the other end. Facts flashed past his mind's eye, facts like how dragons were virtually extinct aside from these three and how he'd cared for them as best he could for the last couple of years. He'd come to know each of their personalities and, he hoped, gained the trust of the three and that was a feat all by itself considering how badly they'd been treated by the guards. He'd come here to SAVE them! Now he was watching one of them die and his eyes told him that the invading Fire Nation soldiers were preparing to do the same to the other two dragons. Images flashed in his mind, images of the mother and the child dragon dropping dead to the floor, and the only thing he could think about or convey was his overwhelming desire to prevent that from happening. To that end he immediately tried to perform one of the most destructive techniques he had ever been shown, one that he had never fully grasped, the lightning technique. Again and again he went through the motions but either the tendrils of energy never formed or he was nearly blown off his feet a number of times thanks to the failed attempts. He knew that in order to perform the technique required complete absence of emotion and a tranquil mind. He was TRYING to calm himself down! However his concern for the lives of the lives of the remaining dragons was clouding his mind making that almost impossible. In the end it was impossible and he paid the price for this lack of ability a few moments later when the mother dragon followed her mate to the ground with a spear buried deep in her eye.

It was a sight he would never forget, seeing the mother dragon fall to the ground with a thud that send tremors through the metal floor beneath his feet. He prayed that somehow it wasn't as bad as it looked at first glance, that she'd somehow get up to vent her fiery rage on those that had killed her mate.

That did not happen.

The once majestic animal did not move from its prone position on the floor, nor did it even make a sound to indicate that a speck of life might still reside in its large frame. Looking at the sole remaining dragon, the one he'd developed the strongest bond with, he could see as it landed by its family that it was beginning to realize the truth of the situation. It let out a roar of sorrow at its loss and was so enveloped in its grief that it took no notice of the invading Fire Nation soldiers lining up with another volley of spears on the above catwalk. He wanted to stop them! He wanted to unleash such a torrent of bending that they'd be scared into retreating as quickly as their cowardly feet could carry them. However, with all the firebending techniques being used in the room, some directed at him while others were not, it was all he could do to keep himself alive while keeping the white and gold dragon in sight for as long as possible. Add that to the fact that there was a severe lack of either water or earth to bend in the immediate area and he couldn't use anything but firebending techniques to defend himself with. Despite the thoroughness of the training he'd undergone and the relentless, uncaring nature of the instructors, he was still just a fifteen year old with no practical combat experience. Watching the invading men raise their spears in preparation to strike, he pushed his body harder and harder to create an opening for him to stop them but it was no use.

He was helpless.

"AAAHHHHH!!!!" Came a female cry from the catwalk above and behind him and he knew that one of the female prisoners had just been hit.

Was it Lady Ursa?

Was it Kya?

NO!

This breakout was his idea and he'd promised them that he'd get them out!

HE WASN'T GOING TO LET THIS NIGHTMARE GET ANY WORSE!!

With a level of determination and unyielding willpower soaring ever higher in his body, a white light began to creep in from the edges of his vision. By the time he realized it was there it was already too late to do anything but let whatever was happening happen.

Only later, once it was all over, would he learn from the others what had happened.

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One Second Later, The Dragon Holding Room, Anti-Avatar Facility, Kya's P.O.V

"Easy, Ursa! It's actually not as bad as it probably feels." Kya said as she ripped a part of her prison dress and used it to bandage the burn mark on her fellow inmate's shoulder.

She wished she could say that it would stay that way but, looking at the scene laid out throughout the room, she knew that all their hope had been for naught. It had been a good effort, one that spoke well of Zihao's nature, but in the end there were just too many enemies set against them for any group to overcome. With so little experience in combat, it didn't matter if they had over fifty people following them into the room. It still meant fifty people who only had experience using their bending abilities for light sparring sessions or lessons on new techniques. Against soldiers who had years of experience at their disposal, both from official military training as well as campaigns in foreign lands, she was surprised that they had survived as long as they had. She supposed it had mostly been because the guards assigned to the place as well as the invading forces were more concerned with dealing with the dragons than a group of escaping prisoners. Now that two of the three dragons were dead, though, she expected the amount of fireballs and streams of flames coming their way to increase greatly. She wished there was some source of water nearby! At least then she could use a form of bending she felt more comfortable with rather than having to use the techniques she'd been taught once it had been confirmed that she could firebend after one of those… torture sessions of Kurosaki's. It felt wrong when she did it, like something painful was scraping against her skin whenever the fire leapt from it towards the target she'd been ordered to hit.

It was the only weapon she had though so it would have to be enough.

She was just about to try and organize the inmates around her into something resembling a unified defense when a combination of light and a shockwave of energy shot out in every direction from the floor below the catwalk she was standing on. For a few seconds it was all she could do to stay on her feet and not be blinded by the white light coming from the floor below but, when it died down a bit, she looked towards the source to see if it was a good thing or not. Her mind was overcome with awe at what her eyes were telling her and she had to wonder if something hard had hit her head without her knowing about it.

Down on the floor below was Zihao, standing perfectly still in a stance consistent with firebending practices, but this was the only normal thing about him at the moment.

Lines were crawling across the surface of his skin, visible even beneath his clothes because of how bright they were glowing white, weaving about like a river that had been split into tributaries. They did not diverge for long though as they came together in pairs on the back of his hands, the top of the feet ending short of the toes and on the forehead about half an inch to an inch above the eyebrows. When added to the glowing white eyes, she thought for a moment that she was witnessing the manifestation of the fabled Avatar State and that Zihao was somehow connected to the Air Nomads. However it was then that she noticed a difference that went against this theory of hers. Instead of forming arrowheads like she'd seen in drawings of the past Air Nomad Avatars, these convergences looked more like the points of a blade or a sword. When all points were connected the space inside the two lines that converged flashed full of glaring white light, she knew she was about to see something truly amazing.

She was not disappointed.

With a vicious step and a half turn of his arms, she watched as the wall of metal behind the soldiers on the catwalk on the other side of the room across from her own get pulled by some unseen force. It bent itself around and blocked the spear wielders' field of vision and then Zihao thrust both his hands towards them before snapping them closed into fists. This caused the strip of metal to split in such a way so as to give each soldier a piece of his own as it clasped itself around each of them like metal bands on a barrel. She thought that this might be the end of it, since the dragons were now safe, but she was proven wrong when, after a series of sweeping circular motions with his arms and his middle and index finger pointed outward, the young man discharged a bolt of lightning at the bound soldiers. The energy arced from one band of metal to another for a few seconds before the charge ran out but by then it had done its job of neutralizing the invading forces in the room.

However Zihao was not done there.

With a single short hop towards the guards and soldiers that had been assigned to the facility, she watched as the metal rivets that had been in the floor popped up from their places beneath Zihao's feet. Numbering at least twenty or thirty, everyone was given at most two seconds to take all of this in before the young man began stabbing the air in front of him with the middle and index fingers of both hands almost faster than she could follow. The result of these strikes was made clear less than a second later as the rivets that had at the time been on their way back to the ground shot forward through the air, striking the guards in the blink of an eye. In a matter of seconds, all fifteen of those that had remained in the room were down on the ground with some completely unconscious while others were clutching the spots where they'd been hit in pain. In was the final act that Zihao performed that left her in shock: with several earthbending movements like she'd seen during the few times she could observe the training ending with his hands cupping each other before being yanked diagonally apart, the entire steel wall in front of him gave way and was repelled from him. It wasn't until the dust from the displacement died down that an unbelievably large tunnel was revealed where before she could have sworn had been nothing but steel and stone.

How is he doing this!?! She thought as her eyes took in the young man with the glowing markings, Only the Avatar should be able to perform feats of bending like this!!

As she thought this, though, the glow than flowed outwards from the markings on Zihao's body faded away and, with the light, apparently so too went his ability to remain conscious. He dropped to the floor like a puppet whose strings had been cut and, for a moment, fear struck her heart as a terrible possibility opened up inside her head. Had he pushed himself beyond what was safe? Had he literally torn up the insides of his body like she believed she did whenever she employed her artificially provided firbending abilities? She didn't know but, with him unconscious, it was up to someone else to lead the group of liberated inmates to safety. Looking to Lady Ursa, she could tell that while not in any danger of dying, the woman was still in quite a bit of pain and would probably need some help moving. With the rest of the ex-prisoners in a similar but lesser state of injury, it looked as though the duty of leading this group had fallen to her.

"Everyone! Help the injured down the floor below!" She yelled so that everyone could hear her, "We're going to use the tunnel that Zihao made for us to escape. Luttie! Pick up Lady Ursa and carry her!"

"Rrrright. C-c-carry." Replied the scarred man who was so covered in old wounds and prototype metal prosthetic limbs that was downright painful even to look at.

It took them a few minutes to safely reach the floor but in that amount of time, the once grieving white and gold dragon child was slowly circling Zihao's prone form. Now that she was closer, she could see the young man's chest rise and fall as his lungs took in the air needed to live. She let out her own sigh of relief that the young bender was still living and moved to pick him up herself so that they could all leave. However the moment she got about ten feet away from him, the young dragon moved to block her path and was showing all the signs that it would attack her if she got any closer. This was something of a surprise since, while she knew that the young man had been in charge of feeding the dragons for many years, she hadn't though that would be enough to inspire this sort of protective behavior. She knew that fighting with it would only waste time and she wasn't entirely sure she could defeat it in the first place. Instead she chose a tactic she'd employed when one of her own children was in the mood to be hostile as well as defiant towards her.

She would meet hostility with kindness.

"I know you wish to keep him safe, young one." She said with the softest voice she could manage, "But we must leave here now. Do you understand?"

Seconds passed and she was worried that the dragon would not comprehend what she was trying to convey with her words but then something remarkable happened: with a final warning growl, the dragon turned around and, after carefully working its nose beneath Zihao, the animal hoist the young man onto its back, settling the kid into a riding position. Without another look in her direction, the dragon rose slightly into the air and began to make its way towards the tunnel that, hopefully, at the end would lead to freedom for all. Gesturing for the others to follow, they entered the tunnel at a brisk but steady pace since none of them had any illusions about how soon more invading Fire Nation soldiers would show up looking for their defeated comrades. Given the shape they were all currently in and the fact that the young man who had singlehandedly defeated over a dozen enemies was unconscious, another confrontation was not a good idea. Taking the lead position with the dragon, she kept her eyes on alert for any sign of the enemy so everyone could get as much advance warning as possible.

You truly are a wonder, Zihao. She thought turning her head slightly to look down at the young man, But what exactly are you?

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The Spirit World, Unknown Time, Zihao's P.O.V

"O-kay! I think it's safe to say that I'm either dying or dead and this is some weird sort of afterlife for people who can bend more than one element." Zihao muttered as he took in the landscape around him with an air of wary confusion.

It was definitely not something he'd ever see before and he personally hoped he wouldn't have to view too often, considering how weird it was. It kinda reminded him of a drawing one of his friends had made before he'd left for the Tiamat Academy of a fictional land where all four of the elements were mixed together as one. Streams flowed by rocky masses of land while plants made of fire were blown every which way by the moderate breeze that even now messed with his hair. However this was definitely no place that naturally existed in the world he knew so it left him wondering how he'd gotten there and how he was going to get back to the others. The last few minutes were a bit blurry to him but he remembered enough to know that they were hip deep in troublesome firebenders with no obvious way out. The problem was that since he couldn't recall ever having been to a place like this before he had no idea how to get out of it. Deciding that picking a direction and walking would be a nice way to start things off, he spun himself around on one foot with his eyes closed and, when he finally came to a stop, he looked to see where he'd ended up looking.

Surprisingly enough he found himself looking back in the exact same direction he'd originally found himself gazing when he'd first woken up in this place. The surprising part was that while his eyes were closed, he was fairly certain he'd spun more than three hundred and sixty degrees so he should have wound up facing another direction. Still, in a crazy place like this, it was difficult to keep anything straight so, with a shrug, he started walking in the direction random chance had pointed him in. Hopping out of rocky outcroppings and being careful not to walk too close to the fiery plants around him, he walked for what seemed like at least an hour before he realized he was getting nowhere fast. While there existed some variations in the environment from the place he'd started out in, there was still nothing he could even begin to use to try and get back home.

"HELLOOOO!! IS ANYONE OUT THERE?" He yelled, deciding that trying to find someone locally to help him get home was the next logical course of action.

"Yes. We are here." Came a multitude of voices from all directions that had him looking in every direction to try and find the sources.

The voices were weird, coming from four directions but almost sounding like four groups of five people talking in perfect synch with one another make for a rather odd effect sound-wise. As to the sources of the weird voices he could swear they were coming from the elements themselves but that didn't make any sense. Then, as if attempting to help him, sections of each element that composed the environment began to transform until four plainly humanoid figures stood looking at him.

At least he assumed they were looking at him.

It was kinda hard to tell with no eyes or anything.

"Who are you guys?"

"We are the four primary spirits of this world. I am Water." Spoke a female-looking mass of water to his right.

"I am Earth." Said a masculine mass of mud twenty feet in front of him.

"I am Air." Stated a cloud-shaped like an elderly man.

"And I am Fire." Spoke the female flame form behind him, "You have awakened. We brought you here to explain."

"Awakened? Brought me here?" He asked, not able to get over the fact that he was apparently meeting with the four spirits that embodied the four elements of his world.

"You have been given the power to bend three of the four elements of which we each claim dominion over. We were the ones who enabled this to be so." Replied Water without gesturing at all or doing anything remotely human, "You are to be our counterweight in the struggle against our enemies. The task will be difficult but we feel that you are sufficient for the task."

"You're the ones that gave me the ability to bend earth and water?" He asked with some confusion since this went against what he knew, "I thought that monster Kurosaki did that."

"No. Kurosaki may have changed you but it is we who allowed it to occur with the least amount of difficulty," replied Earth, sounding a little angry at the mention of the mad Fire Nation scientist. "We could not prevent Kurosaki from changing some but, aside from you, they are all imperfect. Flawed. They will never be as strong or as skilled as you."

He had to frown a bit at this because, if he was understanding things correctly, these four beings were pretty much the reason why so many of the people put through Kurosaki's horrible procedures didn't survive or, if they did, weren't quite right in the head. If these spirits had the power to affect the victims of the painful process the mad scientist put the inmates through, then why didn't they put a stop to it completely. Even if their representative, the Avatar, wasn't around to do it, they still could have done something!

"The black flames protect the place where you were held. It was all we could do to hinder Kurosaki's efforts as much as we did." Said Wind with genuine apology in the words, "It is their actions that necessitated sending a messenger to your native reality to seek assistance."

"My native reality? What're you talking about?" He asked, feeling as though for every answer he got two more questions popped up inside his head.

"See and understand." Replied the fire spirit before pointing a crimson finger at him.

With those words and a single finger, his mind exploded into a barrage of images and other sensory input that was almost too much for him to handle. They reminded him of those weird dreams he sometimes had but, instead of being too vague to really think about, he now viewed things with unreal sensitivity, causing him to drop to one knee. It seemed like forever but eventually the information flooding his mind took on a more orderly form and he was able to make sense of what was floating around his noggin now. The information was of a man named Alexander LaVelle Harris who had lived in a world quite different from anything in the world of the four nations. Machines and structures that seemed more like magic than anything he could compare it to made up most of this world. He remembered people, some were friends while others were enemies, and he could see the sort of life that this Alexander had led right up until he died an old man in bed with his beloved wife. The strange thing about all this was that the feelings of watching someone else's life that he'd been expecting were almost non-existent rather than right up in his face. Instead the impression he was getting from viewing the images and experiencing the memories was that they were somehow his own but almost instantly his mind rebelled at the idea. He knew who he was, he was Shen Zihao, not this Xander Harris! However, as the barrage of information seemed to be coming to an end, he found his resolve cracking a bit as he could not severe the connection that now existed between what he knew and what had been thrust into his mind.

"Not two chains but one. The past life and the present one." Said the Water spirit as his awareness of his surroundings returned, "Selected you were because of your time as Xander Harris. A wise choice it was by your actions as Shen Zihao."

"A dangerous time has come to this world. The Fire Nation and its Lords have disrupted the balance between the four nations and matters are quickly becoming irreparable." Said the Earth Spirit, sounding concerned, "Our champion will re-enter this world in only a few short days. He will address the imbalance. We would like you to tend to the new element that has been added to further destabilize this world."

It was quite a shock to be told that the Avatar would soon re-emerge from whatever hiding spot he/she had been in for the past hundred years but to also be asked to take on a role by the spirits was almost more than he could handle. So awed by the situation, he was almost willing to agree to their request immediately but the part of him that he assigned his Xander Harris memories was suspicious of these four beings. Xander had known of such higher beings in his world and those sorts of people were not known to be very considerate about the lives and problems of those mortals they commanded. All too often higher beings were more concerned with the 'big picture' than the lives of the little people and thus thought nothing of the hardship they thrust upon those people. At the same time the more dominant part of him, the part belonging to Shen Zihao, recalled all the stories that his parents had told him about the spirits of their world and how it was thanks to their gifts that everyone in this world was able to live and grow happy. None of the stories that he could recalled showed the spirits as being anything but benevolent, save in instances where a human threatened the balance that existed between the four nations. They were also somewhat hands off when it came to the people of the world since there were no official shrines, temples or places of worship dedicated to them. It didn't mean that people didn't pray to them occasionally but rather that these four beings didn't seem to demand worship or tribute from the mortals living in their world.

In the end, though, he decided that if the balance was truly at risk and there was some way that he could help, then he would but he would keep his guard up just the same.

Just in case.

"I'll do what I can to help restore the balance to this world." He said before raising a finger to indicate he had terms that had to be met first, "However the survival of the other inmates of the Anti-Avatar project are also my concern. I will not forsake them!"

"We know. They too have their roles to play and this will require that most of them remain by your side." Said the Wind Spirit with a nod of its metaphorical head, "We have already taken the necessary steps."

Well aren't you the industrious little spirits. He thought somewhat annoyed that these four were making choices for others without their knowledge or consent.

"You will awaken soon with all the knowledge you have gained here." Said the Flame spirit as it began to lose shape and flow back into the fire plants, "We suggest you travel north to the Western Air Temple. It has long been abandoned but should provide some sanctuary from Fire Nation forces."

Thinking back to his memories of geography class back in his home village, he remembered a large island to the north of the Fire Nation continent that had been home to the Air Nomads prior to their destruction. He didn't know a whole lot about the place, like what it looked like, but it was as good a place as any to run to given the current situation. Nodding in agreement with the suggestion, he watched as the other humanoid forms of the spirits begin to lose their shape as they flowed back into the environment.

"What do we have to do after that?" He asked, wanting to know if they already had a plan for countering the threat they'd brought him to this world for.

"We leave that up to you, Guardian." Spoke the Wind Spirit as the world around him began to fade away.

"Fare thee well." Spoke all the elemental spirits at once.

Great! Nice to see those higher beings are as useful as ever. He thought as he began to enter the place between awake and asleep.

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Two Day's Journey North of the Tiamat Academy, Early Afternoon, Lady Ursa's P.O.V

Wake up my young Zihao. Ursa thought as she placed another cold damp cloth on the forehead of her charge, There's so much to tell you and so much that needs to be done.

It had been two days since the large group of former inmates had fled the Anti-Avatar Project complex and ever since then it had been a time of eternal vigilance against possible encounters with Fire Nation soldiers. As soon as they had made it into the tunnel Zihao had made, those that could earthbend had used their powers to seal off the tunnel by raising the earth beneath them from the bottom of the tunnel to the top. They had even made sure to make it fifty yards thick so that anyone who entered the former holding pens of the dragons might mistake it for just a damaged piece of wall. A few in their group had been skeptical about this actually fooling anyone but, when combined with the dead end tunnels that others with the ability to earthbend had made along the way, any pursuing soldiers would find things difficult. For almost twelve hours they traveled along the tunnel, lengthening it when they came to the end of what Zihao had made on his own, before the majority of the party wanted to climb out to the surface. There had been a moment of indecision as some people were wary about the possibility of there being Fire Nation soldiers up there but with fatigue and hunger setting in it was decided that they had no choice. A little earthbending later and they were up in the middle of a rocky outcropping without any sign of Fire Nation soldiers being anywhere near them.

This did little to lessen the tension among the group of escapees.

They were all still in the Fire Nation and none of them had any illusions about what that would mean for them all. While it was possible that publically the Fire Lord would rule the attack on the Tiamat Academy a complete success, she knew her ex-husband well enough to know that he would send assassins to kill them all if he suspected that inmates might have escaped the initial slaughter. He might do so regardless of whatever report he received from the leader of the soldiers he sent to wipe the A.A Project from the face of the planet. Ozai was never one to leave anything to chance and, should he perceive a threat, it was quashed immediately whether the danger actually existed or not. It was one of the reasons why so few generals and noblemen even considered challenging his power, whether it was done out in the open or in secret. They knew that if the madman caught even a whiff of their plans, they would be eliminated within the week, if not sooner. With the majority of them being cowards, only a handful of people had 'mysteriously' gone missing under 'unusual' circumstances. She hadn't realized it until after Fire Lord Azulon was dead, when she looked into the eyes of the man she thought she'd known, and saw the unbridled evil in his eyes. The man she'd married cared only about power and would obliterate any obstacle that got in the way of obtaining that power. However, like most men that valued power, they were never satisfied with what they had. Whenever they reached a goal they had set for themselves their greed inevitably drove them to seek new heights, no matter what sacrifices they had to make along the way. This was what she had seen in the eyes of her husband as he called the guards and told them that she and she alone had assassinated Fire Lord Azulon in cold blood.

He had even had the foresight to knock her senseless before calling them in so she could not tell them the truth until after he had told them his version of events.

Was it any wonder no one believed her?

Looking down to the young man that had led their escape from their former prison, she was once more reminded of her dear Prince Zuko. There were so many similarities between the two of them but then she recalled the years that had passed since she'd last seen her son. She could still remember her last words to him before she had been escorted away from the capitol and thrown into the compound beneath the Tiamat Academy.

Zuko, please, my love, listen to me. Everything I've done, I've done to protect you. Remember this Zuko. No matter how things may seem to change, never forget who you are.

She prayed that her son had taken her words to heart but, even with every ounce of confidence she had on her side supporting this viewpoint, she couldn't quite shake the cloud of dread that took the shape of Ozai. While during the years previous to her imprisonment she had never seen Ozai pay more than a passing interest in their son Zuko, she knew that that could have changed. If there was one thing her former husband desired more than ever growing power, it was ensuring that he had a suitable heir to pass it down to. Since the secret to eternal life had not been discovered and the closest thing was the cycle of reincarnation that the Avatar went through, her horrible ex-husband would have to be content with passing his throne down the normal way. That meant that Ozai would have to select either Azula or Zuko to succeed him when either a nefarious assassination or old age finally put him in his grave. Given her inattention to Azula and the young girl's behavior, one would think that the current Fire Lord would have no problem choosing her to succeed him. However, considering the girl's abnormal behavior in the weeks leading up to her imprisonment, it was possible that if this pattern of behavior got worse over time that even her ex-husband would not want a madwoman inheriting his throne. That might have been reason enough for the man to begin molding his son into a suitable heir, even if the process wound up crushing the caring boy she remembered in the process. The mere thought of the son she cherished being turned into a copy of Ozai was almost enough to make her leave immediately for the capitol city to save him.

Fortunately her time in the Tiamat facility had taught her something of restraint and patience.

She knew that even if she did set out for the royal palace, there was no guarantee that her son would be there, nor that she would even make it to the front gates before soldiers loyal to the Fire Lord stopped and/or killed her. In fact she wouldn't be surprised if once Ozai learned of her escape if he began to circulate a story of an imposter attempting to incite revolt by claiming to be Princess Ursa of the Fire Nation. If that happened, she wouldn't be able to show her face anywhere in which the Fire Nation was in control. Like it or not, despite the fact that she was no longer imprisoned, she was still cut off from her former life and could not return to it until the man responsible was knocked off his throne.

"Uuuhhhh…" came a groan and almost immediately her gaze dropped to the formerly unconscious form lying on the ground in front of her.

"Zihao?" She asked as she focused her gaze on the young man's face.

Consciousness was slow in coming but as she watched his eyes crack open, she couldn't help but feel relieved that the young man she'd come to consider a surrogate son had not been seriously hurt in the fight with the Fire Nation soldiers. Once the white dragon had agreed to let her and Kya examine the young man, they were able to determine that, aside from some light burns, the most serious change that they could see were the lines that went from one end of the teenager's body to the other. Only when they formed what looked like the tip of a blade on his hands, feet and head did they come together. Both she and Kya had experimented by trying to wipe them off his body with some water they had managed to acquire from a nearby stream but it did no good. Add to that what happened after the lines had finished forming and there was little doubt in anyone's mind that the spirits of their world were involved. Questions by the dozens were on the minds of those inmates that had chosen to stay with her and Zihao rather than taking their chances on their own. Was he an emissary of the spirits? Was he meant to replace the Air Nomad Avatar who must have died a hundred years ago? Would he lead the charge against the corrupt Fire Lord Ozai? All of these questions and more had been asked, both by others and in her own mind, but sadly no one had the answers save perhaps the young man who was squinting at what little light was coming from the cave entrance.

At least she believed he had the answers.

He had been unconscious ever since he had used earthbending to construct the tunnel that had taken them away from their prison and rather than wake up a few hours later he had remained in a deep slumber than nothing could wake him from. They'd tried shaking, yelling, yelling and shaking along with dumping water on him but nothing had roused him from his slumber. Seeing this, it had been the opinion of a former Fire Sage of the temple on Crescent Island, a fellow inmate of the Tiamat prison after criticizing Fire Lord Azulon, that Zihao's soul had been taken from his body by the Spirits so that they could speak to him. When the next obvious question came, that of course being 'when will he wake up', the former Fire Sage said that he would return once the spirits finished delivering their message to him.

Then the old priest simply walked off, never to be seen again.

This, of course, annoyed her greatly but with nothing else to work with, she had chosen to take the elderly man at his word and had made it her responsibility to watcher over Zihao's body until his soul returned. As the boy winced at the stiffness of two days of immobility as he tried to sit up, she moved in to help him while at the same time rubbing his muscles to ease his pain somewhat. Once he was fully sitting up, she heard him attempt to say something but, despite the fact that she tried to keep his body hydrated while his soul was elsewhere, his voice was still scratchy and it looked like he was experiencing some discomfort trying to talk. Taking the container of water that they'd taken with them from the Tiamat facility, she placed it at his lips before slowly letting some of the contents trickle into his mouth.

"Slowly, slowly! Take it a bit at a time, Zihao." She said while preventing the young man from increasing the amount of water being fed to him, "You have been out of your body for a little over two days now and your body needs time to recover. Kya and I have done what we can so that your body was not seriously harmed by your… meeting with the Spirits."

He seemed to remember something with sudden clarity at her mentioning of the spirits but seemed content to wait until he had finished drinking the water before talking to her about it. Once he indicated to her that he had had enough water, she waited, letting him control the situation, since she herself was not certain where to start with the questions currently bouncing around her head. The look in his eyes… he looked almost as if he too had many questions floating around his mind and possessed too few answers to go with all of them. In the end she could not abide the silence any longer and asked the simplest but most demanding question of all those she had to choose from.

"What happened to you?"

"I… I just couldn't let them do it. Dragons are practically extinct in this world." Zihao replied with a voice sounding a bit closer to normal, "They're so beautiful and yet… those soldiers killed two of them without any hesitation. I just couldn't stand by and let them kill Draco too and then… it happened."

"It?"

"It felt like I suddenly had just a little more power than my body should have been able to handle. Bending knowledge entered my mind and it was so easy to perform the techniques." He replied, sounding a little excited at what he'd managed to pull off, "It was like I had done them all a dozen times before, maybe a hundred times before, because there wasn't a speck of hesitation in my mind. Then, when all the soldiers were defeated or dead, the power just… vanished and me along with it."

He seemed to take a moment to collect himself after that, understandable considering the experience he was remembering, before continuing with his retelling of events.

"When I woke up, I was in this weird place. It looked like someone had taken a dozen different paintings from all four nations and mixed them all together." Zihao explained with a tone letting her know just how surreal the environment of the spirits had been, "I walked for a while to try and find a way back to you guys but even after what seemed like an hour I was no better off than before. It wasn't until I yelled out loud trying to get someone's attention that I met them."

"The Spirits of our world?" She asked, having an idea from the environment he described who he encountered.

"Yeah. They told me a lot of things, some of which didn't make much sense, but I'll tell you what I know." He said before telling her everything the spirits told him in a way that sounded like he was saying it all word for word.

Truthfully it was all a bit much for her to take in.

The number of times that the spirits of Earth, Air, Fire and Water had deigned to speak to a mortal could be counted easily with both hands. In each case, the one they spoke to, without fail, went on to carve out a place in the history of the four nations. While a part of her yearned to believe that the boy had merely dreamt it all, that this was nothing but the made up nonsense his earlier affliction, but she like the others had seen the glow produced by the markings on his body when he had fought the soldiers. There could be little denying that that had been the work of the Spirits and that being the case then Zihao was now a champion of the Spirits. She could only imagine what the young man must be feeling at the moment and judging by the look on his face he was still trying to come to grips with it all as well.

Deciding that he needed time to come to grips with it all, she placed the container of water close to him and stood up to leave so as to give him time to think things through. Besides, she should tell the others that he was now awake since, aside from the ten or so that left on their own, the remaining escapees, including Kya, would no doubt wish to know that their unofficial leader was awake.

As for the rest… well…

That wasn't her secret to tell.

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Note 1: Yes I am aware that according to established canon Kya, wife of Hakoda and mother of Katara and Sokka, is slated as being dead. That she died at the hands of Yon Rha of the Southern Raiders. However the show never went into great detail as to how she died. They never showed the hut aflame or a funeral of any kind. They just said that she died at the hands of a Fire Navy officer. This in my mind gave me an out since there were so many ways that Hakoda, Katara and Sokka could think she died when in reality she did not. This will be explained later on during the big reunion.

Note 2: I know that in the series only Toph showed the ability to bend metal but considering how old the Avatar Universe is I refuse to believe than in all those centuries no one else learned how to metal bend. I prefer to believe that the ability to metal bend is so rare or perhaps difficult to learn that only a handful of people in the entire Earth Kingdom can do it.

Note 3: Yes I know that officially in canon that the Avatar is referred to as the spirit of the planet reincarnated in human form and master of all four elemental bending disciplines, whose task it is to keep balance among the four nations of the world. However I had not read that prior to completing Book One and based pretty much everything on what was said, shown or implied in the episodes. Not once did I hear that the Avatar was the spirit of the planet. So if this deviation from canon displeases you then just label this Avatar Universe as an Alternate Universe or something.