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BOOK TWO: CHAPTER ONE

THREE WEEKS LATER

"How's that?" Clarke asked.

Raven smiled up at her with a contented sigh, "So much better, you and your mother are amazing."

Clarke let out a small chuckle as she packed away the healing supplies. At the sound of a heavy splash and a booming laugh Clarke looked up and grinned.

It had taken them five days of sailing to reach land where they met Lincoln's friend Nyko who had willingly traded the boats for a leopard dog. The leopard dog was well trained and carried their packs with no problem. More often than not he ended up carrying the additional weight of Raven because of her leg. Though currently Fornax was lounging and enjoying his well deserved rest under the shade of trees with his tongue lolling out of his mouth and stomach to the sky.

After collecting Fornax their group had travelled straight for Ba Sing Se, walking was tedious and they had often been forced to stop for more than a day to rest. Today was one of those days.

They had found this lake yesterday as the sun began to set and agreed to stop for the night, however the agreement to stay an extra night had been well received when they awoke the next morning to aches and pains.

But it wasn't the walking that caused Clarke the most discomfort, it was the heat. Lexa had grown up in the hottest place of the four nations and found next to no trouble travelling in it, however for herself, Octavia and Kiara, it was a shock to their system. All furs had long since been stripped away and now Clarke adorned as little of the remaining blue cloth from her tribe as she could get away with. The heat had been growing over the last week and even Lexa had been forced down to just the thinnest of layers.

Currently Lexa, Lincoln, Octavia and Kiara were in the lake playing some game they had developed. It involved Octavia sitting on Lincoln's shoulders, Kiara on Lexa's, and the two water benders tried to hit it each other off with water. Kiara shot a stream of water at her opponents; Octavia dodged the attack and retaliated with her own powerful wave.

Clarke watched them for a few moments before standing up and walking over to Fornax. He opened his eyes as she approached and let out a loud bark, to which she rubbed his stomach and laughed as he attempted to roll over. A loud splash followed by laughter echoed through the clearing, from behind her. She stood there for a few moments with him until a pair of arms wrapped gently around her waist and Clarke hummed in contentment as she leant back into Lexa. It only took her a few moments to notice that Lexa was soaking.

"You couldn't dry off first?"

"No," Lexa tightened her grip as she nuzzled her face into Clarke's neck, causing droplets of water to splatter down her clothes.

She chuckled lightly and, with a flick of her wrist, sent the water back towards the lake, "Who won?"

"We did."

"Liar!" Called Octavia and Clarke turned in Lexa's arms to see her friend sat beside Raven, Lincoln and Kiara, "Lincoln and I were like a brick wall. Your attacks did nothing."

Lexa raised an eyebrow. Clarke took her hand and walked them over to sit with the others and smiled when Lexa wrapped her arm back around her. Octavia and Raven shared a knowingly look before blowing kisses in their direction, only causing Clarke to hit them both in the face with a jet of water.

Whilst Kiara and Lexa were busy laughing at Raven and Octavia's spluttering and cursing, Clarke turned to Lincoln.

"How long until we reach Ba Sing se?"

He was pulling out the map and spread it out on the space between them, "I'd say about three or four days. Depending on how many times we stop… it could even be a week"

"We're here," He indicated to a small drawn out indication of water, "And there's one more village on our journey before we reach Ba Sing Se."

"I'm tired of stopping," Octavia groaned, "We're going to bypass the village right?"

"Actually I was thinking Lexa might want to stop there."

"How so?" Lexa asked as she looked down at the map.

Lincoln highlighted the village for her, "This was the village where my father grew up but it was also where Becca was born and eventually died."

"Seriously?" Octavia's eyes widened.

"I've visited it twice, there's a big statue of her in the square."

"Is there a temple?" Lexa asked. Since they left the water tribe Lexa had been unable to connect with Becca again, despite her sitting and meditating each night, nothing had happened.

"No, but there is a meditation garden. Apparently Becca used to visit it all the time. You might find something there." Lexa nodded her appreciation.

"I suppose one more day couldn't hurt," Octavia sighed.

They packed up early the next morning, with Raven and their packs on Fornax as they made their way back onto the main road. The lush trees and dirt were new for Clarke, Octavia and Kiara. The furthest they had ever been from home was a few miles out on a hunting exploration. At first Clarke had been shocked and in awe at first, but the dirt roads became old very quickly.

The journey itself wasn't so bad. It gave Clarke and Lexa time to talk, sometimes they would discuss their plans once reaching Ba Sing Se, but at less serious times they would talk about random things. Clarke learnt that Lexa once climbed the volcano near the Fire Nation capital with her cousins as a dare and when Anya had found out she'd been subjected to vicious training routines for a week. Equally, Lexa learnt that Clarke loves to draw and had even picked up some art supplies from a village they had passed through for Clarke.

"Do all fire benders learn the same techniques?" She had asked one afternoon, much to Lexa's surprise, "It's only that I noticed the Nightbloods fought with the same style you did."

"Actually," Lexa said slowly and in a cautious manner "I used to be a Nightblood."

That had Clarke halting in her steps, "You were an assassin?"

"Nightbloods are used as assassins by the royal family however they're decent of the first royal elite. A private army for the royal family if you will, only a relation to the family or a high general were permitted to train and become a Nightblood. It's expected of us."

"So your mother was a Nightblood?"

Lexa nodded, "Traditionally the crowned prince or princess becomes the commander of the Nightbloods until they become fire lord. It gives them a role of leadership."

"I suppose that makes sense," Clarke said slowly, "Though I couldn't imagine you as an assassin."

"Assassinations, guarding, defending…Nightbloods aren't always used as assassins. They are just better trained warriors."

"So you were the commander of the Nightbloods?"

"Only for a short time until Nia denounced me and I left with Anya to learn the other elements. Ontari is the commander now."

"Your cousin?" Clarke remembered Lexa telling her about her family, "Is she the crowned princess? I thought she had an older brother?"

"Roan… He was never Nia's favourite and technically she can choose whoever she wishes to succeed her, allthough Roan would be a better leader. We were friends once. I could never get along with Ontari."

"So you had friends," Clarke teased and a small smile crossed Lexa's mouth.

"A few," Lexa laughed, "Fellow Nightbloods mostly. Roan was a member, along with a girl called Echo, she was the daughter of one of the generals in my mother's army. Then there was Emori, a distant cousin on my mother's side though I never knew the connection, and Aden." She counted them with her fingers as she recalled their names.

Her face softened at the mention of his name and Clarke ran her thumb across the back of Lexa's hand, "Who's Aden?"

"I don't think he has any relation to the Royal family or any of the generals…but he was an orphan and he trained with us and became one of the youngest members of the Nightbloods. Gustus, my father's brother, was the commander of the Nightbloods at the time and he took a shine to Aden… Gustus died the year after my parents."

Clarke couldn't quite understand what it was like to have a family that big. Her mother had no siblings and her grandparents had died when she was young. She supposed that the water tribe was smaller in that respect, everyone knew everyone but there was rarely any lineage to each family. Lexa's family sounded huge, but then it must have been, the royal family had been around for centuries and it must date back to the first avatar, maybe even before that.

She was brought out of her musings back to the current day as Lexa's voice registered. Clarke blinked quickly and looked up to see Lexa watching her in amusement, "Sorry, I was thinking, what did you say?"

"I just asked what you were thinking about," Lexa chuckled.

"Oh, I was thinking about how much bigger your family is than mine."

"Was, the only real living members now are myself, my cousins and Nia. Emori is too distant a relative to really be considered for the royal family now."

"Royal enough to become a Nightblood," Clarke challenged, "How were they so willing to kill you if they were your family?"

"Not all of them are, some are just children of people high up in the army and occasionally exceptional fighters are granted entrance. The idea of being a Nightblood is that you're the elite of the elite."

"You trained with them though, grew up with them. What about Roan? Echo? Emori? Surely Aden wouldn't harm you?"

"Ontari is in charge now," Lexa frowned, "But Roan left the Nightbloods before I did. I can't say for the others but they never liked Nia, I wouldn't be shocked if Ontari becoming commander encouraged them to leave as well."

Clarke didn't like to think of people once claiming to be Lexa's friends turning on her so easily. However she wasn't the only person fascinated with Lexa's past, Octavia had taken to quizzing Lexa on her life in the Fire Nation. Lincoln and Raven were often questioned as well but Octavia was fascinated with Lexa's fighting skills.

As the day drew on Raven and Octavia became bored so they began pestering Lincoln about how far away they were every ten seconds. They weren't the only ones, after travelling for weeks Clarke was growing sick of it, Kiara had fallen asleep alongside Raven and Lexa was even starting to huff in annoyance.

"There it is!" Lincoln called out cutting off Raven and Octavia's pestering. They both cheered in relief. Clarke shared a smile with Lexa and couldn't help but look forward to finally resting her feet.

As they rounded the corner the group stopped and Octavia let out a whistle, "So this village really worships Becca."

When Lincoln said they had a big statue of Becca he wasn't kidding, though big might have been an understatement. It towered above them, Becca stood, hands on her hips, staring off into the distance.

A few villagers were going about their daily routine as they walked through and occasionally they glanced up but mostly they were ignored. Clarke noted the relief on Lexa's face and her mind flashed back to one village they had passed through that had insisted on throwing a feast in her name. Lexa had been extremely uncomfortable and it had taken all of them to talk their way out of it.

Lincoln lead the way to a house towards the back of the street, "My old family home is still here, I don't visit enough but I know its empty for us to stay in."

"This place is beautiful," Raven noted as they all unloaded their things into the small house. There were three rooms, Lexa and Clarke took one, Raven and Kiara shared another, leaving Lincoln and Octavia to the final room. Judging by the small smile shared between them neither was particularly disappointed about that. Fornax fell asleep almost instantly below the window.

Leaving the leopard dog to his nap Lincoln gave them a small tour down towards a separate street that contained a few street stalls and then, at the end, a bridge that lead the way into a thicket of trees.

"The garden is through there." Lincoln pointed, Lexa's thanks were cut off by Raven's loud dramatic gasp.

"They have a fortune teller?"

Clarke turned around to see she was staring at. A small hut sat directly in the middle of the row of stalls, a bright sign hung above, painted with bright colours and strange arcane symbols. She found herself sharing Raven's enthusiasm but that was shot down by Lincoln's snort.

"I didn't think you would be someone who would believe in that."

"Of course," Raven laughed, "We have the ability to control the elements, the avatar exists and we sit on top of the spirit world but the idea of fortune telling is ridiculous to you?"

"Nobody's future is set in stone so how can one person possibly predict it? I'd much rather spend the time looking for something to cook for dinner."

Raven rolled her eyes, "Oh fine be like that but I'm going."

"Me too," Lincoln shot Octavia a look of disbelief, "What? I'm intrigued."

Clarke turned to Lexa with a smirk, "Are you coming?"

"No. I'm perfectly fine with not knowing my future thanks."

"Don't believe?"

Lexa shrugged, "I already have my past lives poking around inside my head, I don't need another."

"Fair enough," Clarke laughed, "Kiara?"

The smaller girl laughed nervously and side stepped over to Lincoln, "I think I'll just go with Lincoln."

With the agreement that they would meet back at Lincoln's family house when they are finished, They went their separate ways. Clarke felt an urge to accompany Lexa but she knew the brunette needed peace and quiet to connect best with her past lives. Instead she followed the other two inside the hut and looked around.

There seemed to be, what she assumed was, a small waiting room; The walls were draped with colourful patterned fabric and incense burned filling the room with smoky fragrance. A closed door led into the reading room. The three girls looked around slightly unsure on what to do for a moment.

"Do we knock?" Octavia suggested

Just as she spoke the door opened, causing them to jump. A man walked out followed closely by a young woman around their age. The man was smiling as he turned and bowed to her slightly before departing.

The young woman turned to her new customers. Her clothes were a mismatch cluster of different tones and shades of green and mustard yellows, wooden and clay beads hung from her neck and wrists and her fingers were adorned with bronze and silver rings.

"I assume you're here for a reading?"

"Errr, I guess," Octavia chuckled nervously, "Are you going to say that you've been expecting us or something?"

The woman laughed and shook her head, "No, it doesn't work like that. I can read you one at a time… so who's first?"

Clarke and Octavia shared a glance. Their slight hesitation was enough for Raven to volunteer herself. As she disappeared behind the seer Clarke and Octavia sat themselves down on the empty chairs and waited.

It was a long time until Raven reappeared, there was a slight tint to her cheeks and she shrugged off their questioning looks as Octavia volunteered herself next. Clarke stared at Raven as she sat where Octavia had been and grinned.

"Good fortune?"

"Apparently I'm going to meet someone and then she went off about random things that didn't even make sense. Discovery, opening the world up… What's that supposed to mean?"

"Time will tell," Clarke teased and laughed as Raven shot her a glare.

"Wait for it, I bet yours won't make any sense. Half to it is just her trying to get a feel for you by telling you about your past. I already know my past, I'm here for the future."

"Maybe it's all connected."

"Probably," Raven frowned, "She did this weird thing where she put her thumb on my forehead between my eyes… Is there some type of bending we don't know anything about?"

Clarke thought about it. Truthfully they didn't know everything that benders were capable of, water benders in her home tribe had always been discovering new uses and abilities. Her own mother had developed three new ways of healing with water bending during her own studies.

"Clarke?"

They both looked up to see Octavia had returned with a huge grin on her face and the woman staring expectantly at Clarke. The blonde followed her through the door Octavia had just left and found herself in a darker room. The windows were boarded up; the room was lit up enough by candles. There were two mats laid out either side of a small table in the centre of the room.

"Please sit down."

Clarke mirrored her as the both knelt in front of the table, facing each other.

"My name is Niylah," She smiled warmly, "I first need to get a feel for who you are. Please lean forward."

Clarke did as she said and tried not to jump in surprise as her hands came up to hold her face whilst her right thumb pressed against the centre of Clarke's brow. Niylah closed her eyes and suddenly a warm sensation flooded through her.

It wasn't uncomfortable but it wasn't pleasant either, it was as if someone was shifting through her bloods stream. Clarke merely watched Niylah in shock as a smile split across her face, "You are an only child, you have spent your whole life with your mother in the water tribe… You never knew your father." Niylah opened her eyes, "You hope to meet him on this journey?"

"Of course."

"Yet… You are afraid of what you will find?"

"Cautious," Clarke defended, "I'm not scared of him."

Niylah pulled her hands away with a shake of her head, "It wasn't him I was talking about Clarke. You're afraid of where your journey might take you… of where it might take those you care about."

"I know it won't be easy. I didn't set out thinking it would be," Clarke defended.

"Things very rarely are," Niylah sighed as she twisted her hands and finger together rhythmically on the table, "Your journey is difficult to see. I can see pain, fear, love… betrayal…"

Her breath hitched as Niylah's eyes flashed, "However I cannot see the end."

"What do you mean?"

"Beyond your journey to Ba Sing Se I cannot see," Clarke noticed the troubled look in Niylah's eye and could tell the seer hadn't had this problem before, "Your future most interesting, yet I cannot see how this will end."

"What are you saying?"

Niylah looked up and Clarke almost recoiled. Her eyes were completely white and when she spoke again her voice was deep and harsh.

"Nia is the clearest path. You fear one enemy whilst being blinded by another… This journey is longer than you know."

Clarke stared at her in shock, "What do you mean? What enemy? Who is going to betray me?"

The black eyes shifted and Niylah looked slightly dazed and confused as she looked back up at Clarke, "What did I say?"

"You said that I have another enemy…"

"I did?" Niylah furrowed her brow, "I can't see that now. All I know for certain is that your future is tightly bound with anothers,"

Lexa took a deep breath. She sat in the centre of the meditation gardens. There was a small pond surrounded by slabs with the elemental insignias of the avatar cycle surrounding it. The trees cut off the gardens from view and created a privacy that was serene and peaceful for meditation.

Despite her previous struggle with contacting Becca, being here made it almost automatic. As her eyes flickered closed Lexa felt her body shift and when she opened them again she was back in the smokey darkness.

Becca was waiting for her, this time she was sat, crossed-legged, on the ground, "Hello Lexa."

"Becca."

Lexa sat down opposite her and glanced around at their surroundings, "Is it darker than before? How is that possible?" Becca shrugged.

" I am finding it harder to connect with the mortal world now."

"I haven't been able to contact you. Coming to spiritual places are the only way I seem to be able to do it now. Has it ever been like this with previous Avatars?"

"I didn't struggle with connecting to my past Avatars," Becca bit her lip thoughtfully, "However that doesn't mean one of our past lives didn't. Every Avatar is different; we each struggle with a different element of what it takes to be the Avatar."

"This is more than that though. You said so yourself."

"I did. I fear this may have more to do with the spirit world. The Avatar's connection comes from the spiritual links, have you visited the spirit world yet?"

"No, but I haven't tried aside from trying to contact you."

"You need someone who can teach you. Someone other than me."

"Is there anyone?" The brunette grew worried, "Who can teach me?"

"There's only one person I know of who is still alive that could teach you these things."

"Who?"

"My son."

Lexa felt her mouth drop slightly. Granted, she hadn't known much about Becca's personal life, she had only ever been taught about the Avatar Becca.

Becca nodded. She seemed to concentrate on something for a moment then her face morphed into a smile, "You're in my home village."

"It's beautiful… Does he live here?" Lexa's eyes widened.

"Not during my last few years, he moved to Ba Sing Se," Becca's eyes seemed to water at the mention of her village, "I worked hard to keep it that way. I'm glad things haven't changed so much over the last few years."

Lexa gave her a nod of reassurance, "There's a statue of you in the square… Did you know about that?"

"No, I didn't," She laughed, "What is it like?"

"It's huge… Impressive. There's an engraving at the bottom 'In remembrance of her sacrifice'."

Becca rolled her eyes, "They always were dramatic. I wouldn't call it a sacrifice… Did you hear about how I died?"

"I know you died in battle. That's what the sages always told us, but nothing more," Lexa's mind flashed back to lessons in the temple as a child, "We were always taught to remember their life as opposed to their death."

"I would prefer to be remembered that way. My death wasn't a huge heroic battle. I was older, resting at home with what remained of my family but raiders attacked and we have no real fighters in the village. There were too many and I managed to hold them back until help arrived."

"So it was a sacrifice then?"

"Sacrifice is a strange thing. As the Avatar sacrifice is required of us more than most people, our duty is to the world before anything else. I was forced to sacrifice a lot of things for my duty, including my son's childhood, by the time I had enough time to return home he was already grown up. I regret that but I wouldn't change it because I did my duty."

Becca let out a sigh and leant forward to place a reassuring hand on Lexa's shoulder, "I made a lot of mistakes as the Avatar. As many people hated me that loved me but maybe you can change that, you have the opportunity now to change people's perspective of us."

"Are you talking about Diana and Alie?"

"Yes. The things I did to stop Diana and create Alie caused more harm than good. I'm sorry I've left you with this Lexa."

"How do I do this?," Lexa shook her head, "Nia is planning what Diana did but she might actually succeed. Only she won't just wipe out the non benders, she'll control everyone."

"Diana and Nia are both similar in the way that they believe their people to be able to survive without the other. Diana couldn't recognise the need for benders and Nia will never recognise the need for non-benders. But there is a difference between us."

"And what's that?"

"You're level headed, you're intelligent, brave and you're not alone," Becca smiled, "You have your friends. They'll help you."

Lexa nodded and felt a sudden shift go through her. Becca seemed to feel it too, "I think the connection is breaking."

"That can happen?"

"Whatever is happening to the spirit world is breaking our connection. You need to find my son, he can teach you what you need to know."

She was about to say more when suddenly everything shifted around them and Lexa found a sharp pain shoot through her head as she was torn away from Becca.