"Did You find him?" Phoebe asked her husband while he closed the front door behind him.
"No" Coop said and turned to his youngest daughter sitting on the couch: "I'm sorry. I' think it's best to continue our search in the morning."
Parker looked down into her lap and felt an arm fall around her. It was her sister PJ who gave her a side hug. "It's okay Parker" she said: "Who knows, maybe Yin will be waiting in kitchen for his breakfast tomorrow. He's probably just gone on an amazing adventure right now."
"Let's all go to bed" Phoebe suggested.
"I think it's best. We can all use a good night of sleep" Coop supported his wife. They went to the bathroom to brush their teeth and continued in their bedroom to put on their pajamas. The girls got a good night kiss from both mom and dad and then crawled into their beds.
Although Parker was very tired she couldn't fall asleep. She kept thinking of her little buddy Yin, who was all alone walking through the dark cold night. Or maybe he found shelter but couldn't fall asleep because he was too hungry. Parker kept worrying for another hour or so until finally her eyes closed.
Carefully a young kitten climbed down the rocks towards the sand and the water. It was impossible to see the kitten in the black of night because it was just as black, accept for its emerald green eyes and the white spot in its neck.
Finally the kitten reached the sand and was able to continue its journey towards a certain rock formation where it had to be for a special meeting. Just in front of the rock formation the kitten took place on another rock so it couldn't get wet from the rising water.
For a while the kitten just sat there and stared to the rocks while nothing happened. But then suddenly a dull light appeared at the rock formation. It was too dim for anyone who crossed the Golden Gate bridge to notice but it was clear enough to light up a small area of the beach, rocks and water.
After another minute or so the shades of two figures filled the dull light. Slowly the shades grew bigger and more clear until the figures were transformed into a man and a woman. Accept for their clothes they looked like any other normal person on earth.
"Good evening Yin" the man said to the kitten, who was still sitting on its rock. Yin meowed to greet the two people.
"How nice of you to come and greet us" the woman said: "Have you found the child?"
Again the kitten meowed. Without waiting for another question it jumped of its rock and started walking its way back over the sand. The man and woman followed and together they climbed up the rocks to the street.
"Lead the way, my friend" the man said and off they went. The kitten chose the exact same route as he had come to the beach. When they arrived at an apartment building the kitten stopped and sat down on the sidewalk.
"Is this the place?" the man asked. The kitten meowed.
"Let's wait until morning to continue our quest. I don't think it will be a very good idea to scare them in the middle of the night" the woman said.
"I think you are right Jaya. We'll wait" the man responded. The three of them walked to side of the building and searched for a place to sit down out of side. There they spent the rest of the night until the sun woke them up from a very short rest.
Parker woke up with her stomach all tangled up. She wasn't sick but not knowing where her best friend was, made her feel like she was. With a kick of her feet she threw the blankets back and then pulled herself out of bed. Parker sauntered out of her bedroom all the way to the table where her breakfast bowl was already standing with a spoon right next to it.
"Good morning Parker" Phoebe greeted her daughter: "Did you sleep okay?"
Parker shrugged: "I guess." She picked up the box right in front of her and poured the honey cereal into her bowl. When she started to pour the milk into her bowl a sudden familiar sound interrupted her. Parker quickly looked around to see where the sound she had heard, came from.
"What's the matter, Parker?" Phoebe asked. She had noticed her daughter looking up with a shock.
"I thought…" Parker started but didn't finished: "Never mind. I probably dreamed it." She looked back down at her breakfast and stuffed her mouth full of cereal. Phoebe saw the sad look in her daughters eyes but still didn't know what Parker had just heard, or thought she heard.
With another shock Parker turned away from her breakfast.
"Okay, now I'm sure I heard it!" Parker said and ran away from the table straight to the front door.
"Hear what?" Phoebe asked but she got her answer when Parker pulled the door open and loudly yelled "Yin!".
Parker wanted to step outside to take her kitten up from the floor but she stopped herself when she saw two people she didn't know standing right in front of her. She slowly backed away, not taking her eyes away from the strangers.
"Parker, what's the matter?" Coop asked who just came into the living room and saw her daughter backing away from the open front door. Then he also saw the strangers, with their weird clothes. That mostly didn't mean anything good in this family, so Coop took action.
"Parker!" Coop yelled and ran forward to put himself in between his daughter and the strangers, who were now standing in the doorway. Phoebe heard the commotion and also ran to the front door the take place next to her husband.
"Good morning" the bald strange man said kindly and then directed his gaze at Parker, who he could see standing behind her parents: "Is it possible this little kitten belongs to you?"
The woman next to the man took Yin into her arms at the same time the men spoke.
Parker nodded. Behind them PJ entered the room but stopped when she saw the scene at the front door.
"PJ, take your sister to your room" Phoebe commended without taken her gaze away from the strangers. PJ immediately knew how serious the situation was and handled calmly by pulling her sister away from her parents. But Parker counteracted.
"Let me go! No, I want Yin back!" Parker yelled.
"Parker we have to get away from here" PJ tried to calm her sister.
"NO! I'm not leaving without him."
"Amazing isn't it" the men whispered to the woman, loudly enough for everyone to hear.
"It certainly is" the woman responded: "I've never seen such a strong bond originate in so little time."
Coop interrupted the conversation between the strangers: "Who the hell are you?"
The man and woman turned their eyes to both Phoebe and Coop and the man answered: "My apologies for our sudden raid. My name is Monk Kiyoto and this is Jaya." They both made a greeting bow but each with a slightly different arm movement.
"Okay, now that we know your names, how about telling us what you are" Phoebe said with a mocking sound in her voice: "Because I'm pretty sure you're not just human, are you?"
The strangers both softly smiled at each other before the men answered: "You are very true missis Halliwell. We are benders."
"Oh right, benders" Phoebe replied like she knew exactly what that meant.
"Do you know what benders are?" Coop whispered sideways to his wife.
"Not a clue" Phoebe whispered back.
"We gladly want to explain and answer the questions that you have" the woman, called Jaya, said: "Why don't we take a seat?" She nodded in the direction of the couches.
"Knowing your names and what you are, doesn't mean we trust you. It doesn't mean you aren't any kind of evil thing that wants to kill us" Coop said, still on his guard.
"Missis Halliwell, if I'm not mistaken you have certain gifts of your own. I'm sure you can figure out if our intentions are good or evil" Monk Kiyoto said to Phoebe.
Phoebe concentrated herself on the two strangers. For a minute she didn't say anything. When she finally broke her concentration she looked up at her husband and said: "They seem okay. At least I can't feel anything evil going on."
"Then I guess you can come in" Coop said, trusting his wife's judgement completely.
They all walked over to the couches. Jaya and monk Kiyoto took place on the two-seater, Coop sat down in the one-seater with PJ on the elbow rest and Phoebe and Parker both sat down in the other two-seater opposite of the strangers.
"Now that we're all sitting…, start talking. What the hell are benders?" Phoebe said, kind of rude but she was tired of the mysterious vibe hanging around.
It's was monk Kiyoto who started talking first: "Like we said before, Jaya and I are benders."
"Yeah we got that part, but we still don't know what that means" Phoebe said impatient.
"It means that we both are able to bend one of the four element" Jaya continued.
"I still don't know what that means" PJ said annoyed.
"If you get me glass of water I can show you" Jaya replied with smirk. Exited PJ jumped of the elbow rest and ran to the kitchen. A moment later she came back with a glass of water in her hands. She carefully placed it on the coffee table and took her place back next to her dad. Jaya stood up and walked over to an open space opposite of Coop and PJ. With spread feet and slightly bent legs, Jaya started to move her arms. A second later the water in the glass started to move. Not just from side to side but it rose up out of the glass and didn't fall on the ground. Jaya moved her arms in a different direction and the water followed. It formed a circle around her. The whole time the others were looking at the show with open mouth, except for monk Kiyoto of course he had seen waterbending many times before.
Jaya directed the water back into the glass and then took her place back on the couch.
"WOW, that was awesome!" PJ shouted: "Can you do that too?" she asked monk Kiyoto.
"No," he laughed: "I'm not a waterbender."
"Then what kind of bender are you?" Parker asked curious. It was the first thing she had said since she had opened the front door. Both Jaya and monk Kiyoto turned their head towards Parker, who felt intimidated by their gazes, so she tried to crawl a little closer to her mother. Phoebe, who felt Parker's insecurity also noticed that the benders seemed to look at her youngest daughter in a different way than they did to the rest of them. There was a kind of twinkle in their eyes. Phoebe wasn't sure how she felt about that.
"I'm an airbender" monk Kiyoto finally answered.
"Ooooh can you show us something too?" PJ asked exited. Monk Kiyoto moved his arms in front of him and held his palms towards each other. He had created a small ball of air in between them. When he released his concentration, the ball of air disappeared.
"Oh my god! That is so cool. I wish I could do that" PJ reacted.
"What about you Parker? Would you like do something like that?" Jaya asked.
Before Parker could answer, Phoebe threw herself in the conversation: "Okay, now we know what benders are it is time for some other questions. Why are you here and what do you want from us?"
"That's quite a long story" monk Kiyoto said.
"Then make it short" Coop replied. He had noticed that Phoebe was back on her guard. She had sat herself straighter and had laid an arm over Parker's legs.
"Okay, let me try" Jaya started: "In our world we are guided by many spirits. They help us by showing us the path of life. Ten years ago, one of those spirits tolled us a special bender would be born in this world. A child, who by now turned the age when bending power start to emerge. So we've send an animal guide to find this bender."
"And did you find him?" Phoebe asked.
"We sure did" monk Kiyoto said with a smile on his face and again subtle turned his gaze at Parker.
"Then why are you here if you found your bender?" Coop asked confused.
"Because the animal guide leaded us here" Jaya answered.
"Here? You mean that…" PJ said, turning her head to her little sister. PJ started to understand what the benders were trying to say.
"Indeed. The bender the spirit was talking about, is Parker" Jaya finally said.
"Piper! Leo!" Phoebe yelled out the second she opened the front door of the Halliwell manor. Behind her Coop, PJ, Parker, Jaya and monk Kiyoto followed her inside.
"Phoebe?" Piper walked out of the kitchen, very surprised to see her sister: "What's the matter?"
"Is Leo home?" Phoebe asked while looking around.
"No,…he's at magic school. The Elders wanted to talk to him. Phoebe why are you so tense? And who are those people?" Piper asked when she noticed two people she didn't know standing in her house, wearing very strange clothes. Piper hoped they hadn't hear her say magic school or Elders.
"Later…First we need Leo to come down here. LEO!"
"Honey, calm down. Yelling isn't gonna solve anything" Coop tried to soothe his wife.
"LEO!" Phoebe yelled again, ignoring what her husband said.
"Phoebe, he can't…" Piper whispered and nodded towards the strangers.
"Oh yes he can…they know…Leo if I have to wait any longer I'm gonna kick your ass."
"Phoebe…!?" Piper said shocked: "That's my husband you know…"
"Yeah I don't really care at the moment when they're playing with my daughter's life."
Piper turned her head to PJ who stood next to Parker and Coop. PJ noticed her aunt looking at her and replied her questioning look by shaking her head. Astonished Piper now turned her eyes towards her youngest niece, who was looking very scared at her mom.
"LEO!" Phoebe called out again.
"What the hell is going on in here?" It was Paige who asked the question while she walked through the front door.
"Mom isn't very happy" PJ whispered to her aunt.
"I can see that" Paige whispered back with a smirk. Then she walked over to Phoebe, passing the strangers who she gave a questioning look: "Hey there sis, can we do something to help you?"
"You can get me Leo" Phoebe replied with a hint of venom sounding in her voice. Finally the familiar blue lights appeared in the room. Slowly they formed the body of their white lighter.
"Phoebe…" Leo started but quickly got interrupted by his sister-in-law.
"Don't you Phoebe me. You better tell me everything you know about benders and why we've never heard of them before" Phoebe threatened.
"I…"
"Sit…and talk."
Leo sighed. He had no other choice than to obey and follow Phoebe's orders.
"I don't know anything about benders… I only heard rumors about them" Leo said.
"Phoebe, why don't you sit down too and calmly explain us what the hell is going on" Piper said with a calm voice herself.
"Yeah and maybe in the process you can introduce us to your knew friends" Paige added. Phoebe turned around to see the two strangers she brought, standing calmly watching them from the side. She sighed and let herself fall down in one of the couches. It was all too much…How could this happen to her little girl. Luckily Coop was still able to keep his calm.
"These are Jaya and monk Kiyoto" he said: "They came to our home this morning and…well, they are benders."
"They're real?" Leo asked, more to himself.
But monk Kiyoto had heard his question: "Yes, we are very real indeed."
"Care to fill us in on what benders are?" Piper asked.
"Both me and monk Kiyoto can bend one of the four elements" Jaya answered.
"I've never heard of benders before" Paige said, shrugging her shoulders.
"That's because we do our best not to be heard of. We live in a different world where we are protected from any danger that is present in this world" monk Kiyoto explained: "It's been like this for more than a hundred years."
"Okay now we know what benders are and sort of where they live…What does this have to do with Parker?" Piper asked. Phoebe looked up to her older sister. She was a little bit surprised that Piper had already figured out. But then again, she wasn't.
"Parker?" Leo asked confused.
Coop took a deep breath: "They claim to know why Parker hasn't any magical powers."
"Okay. Why?" Paige asked curious.
"Parker is a bender" PJ said. All their heads turned from PJ to Parker, who felt very uncomfortable with all the attention.
"How…?" Leo was the only one who was able to say something.
"We're not quite sur yet ourselves how it is possible. Like your magic, the bending power is determined genetically" Jaya answered.
"Are you sure?" Piper asked carefully: "Are you sure that Parker is a bender?"
"Yes, we are" monk Kiyoto answered: "The spirits, our guides, told us there was a bending child living in this city. We decided to send an animal guide ahead to search for this special child. It didn't take long for the animal guide to find the child and let us know."
"Animal guide?" Paige asked.
"Yin" Parker said softly.
"Your kitten?" Piper asked. Parker nodded.
"The bond between Parker and Yin is incredibly strong" Jaya said: "It happens sometimes that animal guides bound to benders, but I've never seen it so strong and especially in such a short time."
"Sorry but I'm still not convinced that Parker is a bender. We've never seen her do something" Piper said.
"That's because bending powers activate when the child turns ten years old" monk Kiyoto replied: "Sometimes, it takes a couple days more."
"Which element would Parker be able to bend" Leo asked.
"We'll have to wait and see until she starts bending" monk Kiyoto answered with a smile.
"It's really cool to see someone bend" PJ said enthusiastic: "Monk Kiyoto is an airbender and Jaya a waterbender. Can you show us again?"
The benders both showed the same trick like they had done before at Phoebe's condo. Paige and Leo looked at the performance with open mouth. And although Piper also enjoyed the show, she still trusted the situation.
"I'm sorry but I'm still not convinced that you're telling the truth" Piper said with a hint of paranoid: "Yes you showed us you can bend an element, but why should we believe that you are telling us the truth about these spirits telling you Parker is a bender when there is no explanation for it. I'm sorry if I sound paranoid but we have experienced too much dishonesty in our lives not to question this."
"I said that too" it was the first thing Phoebe had said since she had calm down a little: "But then they showed us something else."
Piper, Paige and Leo looked questioning from Phoebe to Jaya and monk Kiyoto. These last once slowly pulled their sleeves up and showed both wrist to the Halliwell family.
"Oh my…It can't be."
"Are those…?"
"…the same."
"But now we have a question for you" Jaya said: "We showed our tattoos to your sister and brother-in-law at their place. The second they saw them your sister commanded us to come with her to this house. Why did you freak out when you saw our tattoos?" Jaya asked Phoebe carefully.
"What do your tattoos mean?" Coop asked.
"They represent the element we can bend. Every bender gets them when he or she graduates at eighteen" Jaya explained.
"So you didn't get born with them?" Phoebe asked. A tear was forming in her eye.
"No,…why?" Jaya asked. Both she and monk Kiyoto didn't understand.
"Sweetie, it's okay" Phoebe nodded to Parker. Parker sighed. Slowly she removed her gloves, her shoes and socks and finally her head kerchief. Now it was time for Jaya and monk Kiyoto to react shocked.
"This can't be…Monk Kiyoto those tattoos…"
"I see them…Very curious…So I assume that Parker did get born with hers?"
"Yes" Phoebe replied: "But not everything at the same time."
"She was born with one symbol on her back. Over the years it spread out to her legs, arms and head" Coop explained.
"When did it stop? When was it complete?" Jaya asked curious.
"Yesterday" Parker said softly. Her mother pulled her closer for a hug.
"You see, it's a very big surprise to us to see these kind of tattoos. They haven't been seen for more than a hundred years" monk Kiyoto started: "There us to live special benders among us. These were people who could bend not one but all four elements. They were also able to connect more strongly to the spirits and could enter the spirit world. That's why they're called spiritbenders. Only these benders where born with their tattoos. The exact same tattoos as those of Parker."
"You're saying that Parker is one of those benders?" Phoebe asked astonished.
"I would say yes if it wasn't for another curious thing" monk Kiyoto continued: "These special benders all died more than a hundred years ago. An evil being from this world, entered ours and slaughtered all the spiritbenders. That's why we now protect our world so badly from this one."
"How is all of this even possible? This is just to strange" Leo said.
"But then again, maybe not so much" Jaya said: "It would certainly explain the strong bond between Parker and Yin. Spiritbenders were known for their extraordinary bonds with animal guides."
"Okay, say we believe that Parker is…a spiritbender…What does this mean? What happens now?" Coop asked confused.
"In our world we have a school that all bending children go to. There they learn our history and of course how to control their bending. We would like Parker to attend" Jaya replied. Parker looked up. They were talking about a new school for her, in an entirely different world. A world where apparently she belonged. Parker felled a tingle in her belly. Could it be? Would she finally find that place where she'd fit in, the place where she belonged?