Sayu woke to someone shaking her.

"Sayu! Sayu wake up!" Ryosuke pleaded.

Her lungs were burning, but she didn't know why. She tried to breathe, but there was something on top of her chest, preventing her lungs from moving. She thought it was a boulder.

"Get that rock off my chest!" Sayu tried to shout, but it came out a weak mumble.

"Sayu, there's nothing on your chest! You have to breathe!"

Sayu started coughing, and it turned into a coughing fit. "Turn her over onto her side!" said Misa, and she felt two pairs of hands turn her over. She started coughing up blood and her vision blurred. The blood stopped, and with a great deal of effort, she was able to draw in a small breath, then another. After three agonizing breaths, Sayu was able to breathe normally, but the weight was still there. She opened her eyes, and saw millions of stars looking back at her.

"What happened?" she whispered.

"It was my turn to fly Kiba, you were sleeping," said Ryosuke, looking distraught. "I just happened to look back at you, and you were turning blue, you weren't breathing. Oh Sayu, you really are sick, there's no denying it now. You might even be…" he refused to say it out loud.

"Lie still, Sayu," said Misa. Her voice was calm, but her eyes were full of concern. She took some water from the pouch hanging at her side and used it to try to heal her. It felt strange, she could feel the water at work. It felt tingly and invigorating, but it did nothing to heal her symptoms.

"It's not working," said Misa after she gave up a few seconds later. "I can feel what's doing this to you, but it's unlike anything I've ever felt before. It's very strong and powerful, it felt alive."

"How can it be alive?" asked Ryosuke. "We should take you to another healer, or to one of the air temples."

"No," said Sayu as she latched onto his wrist with her weak fingers. "We swore we wouldn't stop until the mission is complete. We have to keep going."

"No, not if it puts your life at stake," Ryosuke argued.

"Might I suggest something?" asked Taro. Sayu had forgotten he was there. "My mother, though she tried so hard to sever her ties with her culture, couldn't sever all of them. She was still spiritual in some matters. There was once a man in our village who was very sick, and no one could cure him no matter what they did, they tried everything. My mom said that it was because the conflict came from within, he was at war with himself, and it was eating him alive from the inside like a disease. Once he was able to deal with the turmoil and strife, he recovered completely."

"What are you getting at, Taro?" asked Ryosuke.

"Maybe Sayu is the avatar, but she's been unknowingly suppressing it. The avatar spirit won't be contained forever."

"What? That's impossible, I can't be the avatar," Sayu replied. "I failed the test, and I'm a terrible bender."

"It is a possibility," Misa mused.

"If anyone here is the avatar, it's got to be Ryosuke," said Sayu.

"I failed the test, too. Besides, if either of us was the avatar, Sifu Atasi or one of the monks would have realized it years ago."

"It probably is the kid in the Fire Nation, but in case it isn't, I would give it a lot of hard thinking," said Taro.

It was hilarious to Sayu that anyone could think she was the avatar. Sayu, who could barely make a summer breeze. Sayu, who was always late and messing things up. Sayu, who couldn't get her own life together, let alone the entire world.

But then there was Ryosuke, who was everything the avatar should be, Sayu believed. Smart, strong, powerful, who could probably make a hurricane to destroy the entire Earth Kingdom if he wanted. Not to mention, he had the most important qualities the avatar should possess: he was spiritual, friendly, and able to make peace between anyone. He could probably talk the sky into keeping storms away. There was never a single person who didn't like him, he'd be the perfect avatar, but he would never believe it. But if either of them was the avatar, it would mean the test was not infallible. The monks wouldn't be happy to hear that.

For the rest of the night Sayu couldn't sleep, because at least one person now had to watch her at all times to make sure she didn't stop breathing again. It was unnerving, knowing she was being watched, even if it was for her own good.

It was several days before they reached the shores of the Fire Nation. Sayu was having trouble standing, so Ryosuke let her hang onto his arm as they walked.

This time, it took them longer to find who they were looking for. They had to go through many villages asking people if they knew the air nomad who moved here. Instead of getting answers on the airbender, they heard more news about the Black Lotus. They struck in the Earth Kingdom, in the village they had been in and many surrounding villages.

"Why does this keep happening?" asked Ryosuke one night. They were in a small cave by a campfire. They had just eaten dinner, but after what they'd heard, no one wanted to sleep. Sayu watched the shadows flickering on the walls.

"What does the Black Lotus even want?" Sayu asked quietly.

"Has anyone else noticed the suspicious pattern about their attacks?" asked Taro as he gazed into the dwindling fire. "They attack in the places you've recently been, they're following us."

"Why?" asked Misa, but then she answered her own question. "They don't want us to find the avatar, which means we must be closer than we thought. But that also means that they'll attack here next. Maybe we should stop, so no one else gets hurt."

"We can't stop, we have to keep going," said Sayu.

"Sayu's right," said Taro. "The other nations are starting to panic, they're under siege and there's no avatar to stop it. They all think that the Air Nomads are hiding the avatar and they're going to declare war on them soon if the avatar isn't found."

"We can't let that happen, I won't see my home destroyed," said Ryosuke with determination.

"Hey Ryosuke, do you think we could talk for a minute, just us?" Sayu asked.

He nodded, and the two walked out of the cave. By the cave there were a few trees, and they sat underneath them to talk.

"What did you want to talk about?" Ryosuke asked.

"Taro thinking I might be the avatar has got me thinking about what it would be like," said Sayu as she felt the leaves hanging on a low branch. "I bet it would be very stressful, having all that weight on your shoulders. I don't know how anyone could handle that. Could you handle that?"

"I never thought about it that way, really. Yeah, I can't imagine what it would be like. I'd probably do a bad job of it at first, but hopefully I'd learn and be able to do something right. I figure it must have been hard for all the past avatars, but they all survived and made it through, and if they could do it, so can anyone else."

"There was another thing I was wondering about. Do you think there have ever been any avatars that outright rejected the job? What if they decided they didn't want to deal with all that?"

"I figure we would have heard about it if they did. I can't say I would blame them if they did, but with everyone counting on them… I don't know, I just couldn't ignore that. Could you?"

"Of course not, of course I would help, I'm just thinking. You know Ryosuke, as much as I wanted to be the avatar when I was a kid, I'm really glad I'm not."

"Your view on the whole thing is pretty bleak, I'm sure it's not all bad. The avatar brings peace and joy to the world and helps everyone, and I'm sure they have plenty of people to back them up and be there for them when they need it. The good must outweigh the bad."

"I hope you're right," Sayu replied softly.

Two days later, they finally made some progress in their search. They were given directions to a city where the airbender was supposed to be.

"But the airbender isn't alive anymore, he died years ago," said the butcher, who was the one giving them the directions. "I heard he had a kid though, but it's being kept in the madhouse."

"Why is she being kept in an asylum?" Sayu asked.

The butcher shrugged. "Delusions, that's what I heard."

Sayu and Ryosuke exchanged concerned glances. If the avatar was insane, what would that mean for everyone else? Whatever the reason she was in there, it couldn't be good.

They followed his directions to a mental health facility. Sayu had heard of asylums like this, where people who were mentally ill were taken away to be cured, or at least kept away from society where they couldn't bother anyone. The place they were taken to seemed nicer than what she expected. It was bright and colorful, and the patients seemed to be well taken care of. They were brought to a room with many people in it playing games, writing or drawing, or just talking to each other.

"The airbender's kid is over there, at that table," said a healer as she pointed to a boy with wild black hair. His eyes were big and round, and there were dark circles under them from lack of sleep. He was alone playing Pai Sho with himself.

"There must be some mistake, we were under the impression that we were looking for a girl," said Ryosuke.

"Nope, it's a boy," said the healer dismissively. She turned and walked away.

They walked to table. He didn't look up, but he moved a piece and said, "I've got visitors, no one ever comes to visit me." Was he talking to them? It didn't seem like it, but there was no one else around for him to talk to.

"Hi," said Ryosuke. "Mind if we sit down?"

"Sure," he replied with a shrug. Sayu started to sit down in the chair across from him, but he nearly shouted, "You can't sit there! Niiya is sitting there!"

Sayu jumped out of the chair in surprise. There was clearly no one there, but this seemed important to him, so she didn't sit there again. They brought over empty chairs from other tables and sat down.

"Sorry about that, Niiya," he said. "Some people have no manners."

So apparently Niiya was this guys's imaginary friend. Wonderful.

"What's your name?" asked Misa.

"Li," he replied as he gazed at his hands on the table. He spoke with a quiet voice, it was easy to miss what he was saying.

"Li, we've come here in search of the avatar," said Ryosuke. "We can't find the avatar in any of the air temples, so we think someone might have taken the avatar as a child into one of the other nations. In our records, we saw that an airbender took his daughter and left the temple to come to the Fire Nation. They said he was your father. What happened to him and his daughter?"

"He came here because his wife died in childbirth, he wanted to forget all about her. He brought my sister here to start over. He remarried within a month of coming here, but she died in childbirth, as well. After losing two wives, my father left and never came back, so my sister and I grew up in an orphanage, we stayed until we were six. Then the orphanage burned down so we had to live on the streets. It was just me and my sister living on our own, until she died, as well. Now it's just me and Niiya."

"We think you might possibly be the avatar," said Ryosuke. "It's a long shot, but we have to try. Can you bend any other elements?"

"No."

"Why don't you try-"

"No. I'm not the avatar, you're looking in the wrong place."

Sayu looked to Ryosuke, who seemed unsure of what they should do now. Taro spoke up and said, "That's it, isn't it?"

"What's it?" asked Misa.

"Li just solved the mystery for us. Don't you see? His sister must have been the avatar. His father ran away with her because he figured it out and didn't want to lose her, he tried to hide her. Li, how did she die? How old was she?"

"She died of an illness when she was ten," he said morosely.

"She died, and the new avatar was born into the next element in the cycle," said Taro. "You should have stayed in the Southern Water Tribe, or gone onto the Northern one, because that's where the avatar is. No one's realized it because no one there is looking."

"Could that really be possible?" asked Misa doubtfully.

"You got any better explanation?" asked Taro.

"No, but still."

"What do we do now?" Sayu asked. Suddenly, her head whipped back, and she could no longer see or hear. She lost awareness of everything around her, it was like falling asleep, but with terrible pain. When she awoke, her senses came back to her one at a time. Her eyes opened, and she saw Ryosuke kneeling over her, looking worried and miserable. She also saw Misa trying to heal her again, and Li waving fire over her, like he was trying to heal her, as well. Next, she became aware of the floor underneath her, how hard and cold it was. Then she got her hearing back, and she could hear many startled voices chattering near them, wondering what was wrong with her and if she would be okay.

"It's getting worse," said Misa as she shook her head sadly.

"There's something very wrong with your spiritual energy," Li mumbled. "Your spirit is at war with itself, it's tearing itself apart. If you don't resolve the strife within you, you'll be dead in a matter of days." Sayu realized that he must be very knowledgeable in spirit matters to be able to sense that.

"No!" cried Ryosuke. "How can this be happening? Sayu, do you have any idea what could be causing this, any at all?" He looked pleadingly to the others. "Isn't there anything we can do? We have to save her!"

"I would say we should bring her to the spirit oasis in the Northern Water Tribe, or to one of your temples for healing, but it would take too long," said Misa as she ran her fingers through her hair. "We could make it, but I doubt she would survive the trip."

"You don't have to go that far, Niiya and I know of another place," said Li. "There are spirit waters in the Fire Nation, in the Bhanti Village Temple. The Fire Sages convene there, they can help us."

"Can you show us the way?" Sayu asked weakly.

He thought it over for a minute and asked Niiya what she thought. In the end, he said, "All right, I will."

"Are they really just going to let you leave?" Taro asked as he raised an eyebrow.

"Of course, I'm here voluntarily," Li responded simply.

"Why do you want to be here?" asked Misa.

"The world's not so loud in here," he replied softly.

Sayu tried to stand, but her legs weren't responding. It was like someone had cut them off. "I can't feel my legs."

Ryosuke scooped her up and carried her. "You're light as a feather," he commented. He tried to smile, but he couldn't do it.

Li told a doctor what he was doing, and she wished him a good day and let him go. They followed him out and began the trek to Kiba so he could fly them to the Bhanti Village Temple. Along the way, Li continued carrying on conversations with Niiya. Sayu tuned it out, it didn't matter to her what he did as long as he could help her.

Along the way, Ryosuke said, "If you're right about the avatar having already been reborn Taro, then this whole trip feels pretty pointless. I hope someone discovers the new one soon. I'm so tired of all this avatar business."

"It wasn't pointless, you got some new friends out of the deal," said Misa in an attempt to encourage him.

Li didn't seem perturbed by flying on Kiba's back, he hardly seemed to notice it at all. Sayu laid down on her back in the saddle, and Ryosuke held the reins. As they were flying, Sayu noticed black smoke filling the sky.

"What's going on?" she asked.

"I think there's a fire," said Misa.

"Fire in the Fire Nation, who saw that coming?" said Taro sarcastically.

"No wait, look!" said Misa.

Sayu managed to pull herself up to see what everyone else was seeing. Several homes were engulfed in flames, and many more were about to join them. People were frantically filling water in buckets and trying to put out the fire.

Without a word, Ryosuke swooped down and landed Kiba. He and the others immediately went to the people's aid. Misa bended the water from their buckets and from the well they were using and dowsed the flames, but that only took out about half the fire. Taro used earthbending to smother the flames, and together, with the help of the villagers, they put out the fire before it could spread much farther. But then it all got worse.

A large group of men and women came in shooting flames. They were all dressed in black and wearing masks to cover their faces. They set more houses ablaze and ransacked people's homes and markets. People ran screaming through the streets as total anarchy broke out. Everyone was fighting each other, it was hard to tell who was who.

"The Black Lotus," said Ryosuke angrily. "Let's get out of here!"

"We need to fight them!" said Misa.

"I can't risk Sayu!" he cried.

"They need you more right now!" Misa fired back.

Ryosuke looked conflicted, but he nodded and stayed where he was.

Sayu could see the assault from Kiba's saddle. Ryosuke was trying to stop the fighting without doing too much damage to either side. She could see the stress and determination on his face, he was trying to end this as fast as he could so he could get back to her.

Sayu could also see the others fighting. Misa's movements were graceful and agile, like a rushing river. She watched her take out a man twice her size like he was nothing. Taro was stronger than he looked, he threw rocks that could have squished him like a bug. Even in battle, he still looked bored. Li, she noticed, wasn't looking at any of his opponents directly, he kept looking behind them. Sayu wondered what he was seeing. With a mind like his, it could be anything.

All four of them were amazing fighters, masters of their element. If only Sayu could fight like them. If she were out there fighting, she would just slow everyone down, or get herself captured, and then they would have to rescue her. As it was, Ryosuke was having to carry her around like a child. He thought she was a late bloomer, but it seemed this bud was never meant to open.

The fight didn't last much longer, and the Black Lotus retreated. The others came back, all looking tired from the fight. They had some burns, and Misa got straight to work healing them. It might have been her imagination, but Sayu thought she saw Taro give Misa a grateful look for a second while she healed the burns on his arm and collarbone.

Sayu could tell Ryosuke was not happy with himself for leaving her and for fighting. He always hated fighting of any kind, and now he was being forced to. When he climbed into the saddle to get her, she cupped his cheek with her hand and asked, "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," he replied. He carried her down onto the ground.

"The Black Lotus has caught up with us," said Taro as Misa healed a burn on Li's leg. "If that wasn't obvious."

"We need to get Sayu to the spirit waters, then we'll focus on the Black Lotus," said Ryosuke.

"I think there's more to the Black Lotus than meets the eye," said Misa. "Something doesn't seem right about all this."

"There's always something hidden underneath, and if you don't dig it up yourself, it'll show itself eventually. Nothing stays hidden forever," said Li in barely above a whisper.

"It's going to get dark soon, let's make camp and rest for the night," said Misa.

Sayu could tell Ryosuke wanted to argue, but he said nothing. They set up camp outside the village, and Li went into town and brought back dinner.

"It's Komodo chicken, Niiya's favorite," said Li. He held out sticks with cooked meat on them.

"Sorry, but we don't eat meat," said Ryosuke.

"You don't eat meat?" said Li, sounding just a tiny but confused.

"It's the Fire Nation, I don't think they have any concept of veggies," said Taro.

"I bought a couple cabbages for your bison, you can have some of that," Li offered. He held out the cabbages, and Ryosuke thanked him and took a couple pieces. He offered one to Sayu, but she had no appetite. She could tell he didn't have much of one, either.

Once again that night, Sayu couldn't sleep, her mind was wide awake even though her body craved rest. Kiba seemed to sense her discomfort and moved to lie beside her. She raised a shaky hand and stroked his soft fur.

"Hey buddy," she whispered. "You can't sleep either, huh? Just one more good night's sleep, that's what I really want right now. I don't think I'm going to be here much longer, and I'm going to miss you so much."

Kiba let out a sad moan, and she said, "I won't give up, but I think my time is almost up. Promise you'll take care of Ryosuke for me, he's really going to need you. But until then, you'll stay with me, right?"

He nuzzled her with his nose, and she said, "Like I had to ask. I know you'll always be there for me, and I'll be here for you as long as I can."

She looked down and saw Ryosuke tossing and turning in his sleep. She reached out and took his hand, and he calmed a little and seemed to rest easier. Sayu didn't get any sleep that night, but she took comfort in being with the two people she loved most in the world.