Summary:It has always been the duty of the Avatar to keep the elements in balance. But the Avatar had disappeared for a century, and the spirits ran out of patience. Now, the Fires Four are about to be summoned, to ensure that he does not fail… Rated T for BVA, R & R!

Disclaimer: Do I really need to say this anymore…?


"Remember, since this is raw power, start out in a small and controlled amount," Astrid whispered to Zuko in encouragement. "Less power, more control. You're just conjuring one small bolt, not a thunderstorm. Great One forbid it to ever come to that…"

That last part she had muttered mainly to herself, thus the meaning behind her words was hidden from her ally, who had looked at her in confusion.

"No, don't look at me," she chastised gently, her eyes never straying from her point of focus, or lack thereof… "Concentrate on the road ahead and the area around you. Assume your stance, find your center, quickly, and call the lightning to your finger tips. Don't forget; you are its guide, not master. You must-"

"Can you even do it?" Zuko dropped out of his stance and turned to face her, not bothering to hide how annoyed he was at her monotonous muttering.

"Found 'em!" An earth bender came into view, pointing at them.

Astrid squinted, as though to will her eyes to clear up. She didn't see as well as she would've liked, but she could make out the earth bender out from the rest of the forest. It was harder than it would appear, for she was now limited to seeing blobs of color, so she focused on the blob of color that had moved.

She drew in a shaky breath and extended her hands out in front of her; two fingers on each hand were pointed forward, and the other two were curled back, while the thumbs remained extended upward, slightly twitching due to nervousness that never once was shown on her face.

She moved her arms in the traditional water bending style, and as she did so, the tips of her fingers began to glow and spark with energy. At first, it had no specific color, but then it began to take on a bluish tint.

She then clapped her hands together. Slowly, she separated her hands. In the space between, lightning fluctuated, and a sphere formed, growing until it swelled to the size of a small coconut. The color shifted again, this time to a hunter green, and there it remained.

Again she moved her arms. The sphere of green lightning followed the movements of her fingers above her head. She twirled her fingers as though she was holding an imaginary slingshot, and the sphere followed. Faster and faster it spun, until there was a green halo above the both of them.

Astrid, content with the momentum, then let the sphere fly, directly towards her foe, who was dumbly staring at the ball of light.

The sphere hit the earth bender head-on and forced him backwards, out of sight.

The sound of metal against metal and the startled shouts of men resounded through the forest, and Astrid pumped her fist in excitement.

"Anything else you wanna ask?" she asked Zuko, looking quite smug.

He was too surprised to think of a comeback. He could only ask in wonder, "What was that?"

"Shock-shot, I call it," She said, smiling proudly. "It's meant neither to kill nor mortally wound, just to cause paralysis or force the enemy away from you. And from what I heard, I just forced him back into those other pervs!"

"Is this part of the curriculum?"

"Would you like it to be?"

"Fire nation scum! You're through!" A deep and gruff voice echoed through the forest, and the men came crashing through the trees to where the two had made their stand.

Insults were hurled at them, as well as boulders that varied in size and shape. Astrid insulted right back and returned fire, literally.

Zuko tried to drown it out, drown out all the sounds, though at first he had little success. Then he tried a different approach than just closing out everything. He tried to think of one sound to lock on. One sound to focus on to help the others to fade away. His chosen sound became his rhythmic breathing, and succeeded in blocking out all others.

'Please don't screw this up,' he thought. 'Please, let me get this right, Great One.'

He nearly broke his concentration when he realized who he had unconsciously pleaded to. Not to Agni, this time, but to Astrid's "Great One". Yet, somehow, it felt right. After all, if this "Great One" listened to pleas from an outcast among outcasts, then what was one more outcast's plea, right?

'For once in my life, please, let me get this right the first time…'

Keeping his eyes focused on the benders in front of him, he moved his arms in a way that had become familiar to him over the past week. He was barely aware of his own movements as he felt raw power flow through him. What began as a pleasant buzz in his arms slowly grew, until the power level suddenly shot through the roof! The power flowing through him now felt like liquid fire eating away at his muscles.

Now he understood what Astrid meant when she said that too much raw power was a bad thing.

In panic, he thrust his arm forward, his fingers in the same position as before; two curled back and two pointing up. In an attempt to relieve his body of the extra power, he guided the lightning through his extended arm and out through his two extended fingers. The lightning came out a vibrant orange, and struck the earth benders in the general direction he had pointed in.

Four earth benders cried out in pain and surprise, and then were never heard from again.

Astrid's eyes widened, and she momentarily averted her gaze from her point of focus, or lack thereof, and turned her attention to Zuko, her expression a cross between surprised and impressed. "Did you actually intend on that happening?"

"No…" Zuko looked at his hands in astonishment, before looking behind him.

Oh, duh. The sun rose. No wonder his powers had spiked.

"That's good," she said, resuming her gaze on the forest. "Then we'll be able to get a better hold on that kind of power once training resumes."

As she said this, Zuko noticed a shadow on the ground, and he glanced upwards, only to see that a large boulder was being bended above his sensei's head.

"Of course, not today, considering that it's your day-"

"Look out!!" He shouted in surprise, pointing towards the large rock above her. Then, without intending to, leftover streams of lightning flew from his fingertips to the chunk of earth, which broke it into gravel and dirt and resulted in a loud explosion. Astrid was much more awake after that.

"Nice shot!" she complimented, giving him a thumbs up.

After that stunt, though, it probably wasn't a good idea for him to do that again. So he went back to fire bending, leaving the lightning to his sensei.

They both had no real intentions of killing the earth benders, so they eventually fell into a somewhat- routine. She would study the ground for shadows and bend lightning to the airborne boulders, with the explosions giving her a good wake-up call every time, despite her body's frequent attempts to shut down. She would also use her shock-shot whenever she saw an opportunity. He would wield the fire in a water bending style, making sure that no one would be able to lay a hit on her.

At first it seemed like neither had gained any ground, but it was during this time that the tide of the battle had changed, and one little mistake on Astrid's part had tipped the scale that would eventually determine the outcome of the Great War itself.

It's strange, looking back, seeing how it all started with a case of blood loss and clouded judgment.

She had seen another shadow and sent up a bolt of green lightning, not even bothering to glance at it. There lies her mistake, which she realized was so after she didn't hear the anticipated explosion. She was hunched over from exhaustion, so she had to crane her neck to be able to see. All she could see was a blue and brown blur falling from the sky towards her. The colors collided with her back, and her knees gave way to the sudden increase in mass they had to hold up.

She collapsed to the ground pelvic area first, and she felt insanely excruciating pain for one split second before… nothing.

In that brief point of agony, she cried out in anguish, and all energy reserves of lightning she had left, which was still a substantial amount, were ejected from her hands all at once. The lightning struck down trees, shrubbery, and perverts alike.

It was a good thing that Zuko was on the opposite side of the clearing she hit…

Actually, when he felt the levels of energy being used in that final strike, he had dove behind a bolder in hopes that she'd miss him.

It might've seemed cowardly, what he did, but he was no fool. That level of pure energy was enough to kill them all.

'How could she survive after pulling a stunt like that?!' He wondered. But then a darker thought crossed his mind.

'She might not have. She could already be dead…'

She remained conscious long enough to hear whom was obviously "lord of the pervs" sound a retreat, and then she finally allowed her vision to darken and her mind to shut down.

She was out before her head hit the ground.

Zuko had waited for a few moments before coming back out, cautiously, in case the retreat was a trick meant to lure them out.

No earth benders remained, thank goodness, but he still couldn't see Astrid, either.

He looked around for a short while before he noticed an out-of-place coloration: blue against brown. Beneath it was his sensei… as well as his friend.

Once again, she was lying in a pool of her own blood.

'Oh, great Agni, please don't let her be-'

He took her pulse by placing two fingers on her collarbone, nearly falling over in relief after confirming she was still alive. Although slow, her heart rate was steady.

He then registered the blue and brown on top of her, realizing that it was just a person with dark skin and darker hair wearing blue clothes.

He lightly brushed away the hair covering the person's face, and his eyes widened in shock as he recognized who it was.

Honestly, after nearly getting his butt handed to him back at the North Pole, there's no way he could've forgotten that face.

It was that water bending wench that traveled with the Avatar!

Astrid must've shot the Avatar's bison by mistake, knocking the girl off.

He immediately looked upwards, craning his neck to look around him. There was no speck of white anywhere in sight, meaning that they probably didn't even know that she was gone.

All the same, for the first time in what seemed like years, he felt like his luck was finally changing, for the better.

Yet, in the midst of his silent celebration, his blasted conscience intervened with the ultimate question:

'Okay, how on earth am I going to carry two unconscious girls at once?'


A/N: Okay, I am now working on this story durng my free time in school, seeing how that's the best time to come up with stuff like this... and I can only update on weekends, so bear with me, kay? I don't plan on ending this story anytime soon. It ain't over 'til it's over.

So, until next time, this is Alchemist Astrid signing off!