Of Mutants and Benders

By: Orionstorm04

Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar: The Last Airbender or X-Men. I only own the original idea and my OC's. I also don't own River Lullaby; it's sung by Amy Grant. Please read and review; hope you enjoy.

A/N: It's that time again people, another wonderful chapter! Well I hope you think this will be another wonderful chapter, I wouldn't want to overstep my bounds or anything. A lot of things will be taking place in the chapter, but I won't give away any secrets yet. I would like to give a huge thank you to Sakura-Neko Chan13, for constantly giving me support and updates, you are a true friend. Also to Young Neil, I greatly appreciate you and your constant reviews.

Secrets Reveled

Absolute silence is what met the occupants of the stone dome. There was no sound, not even a ghost of a whisper of wind. Toph, with her heightened hearing, was the first to notice the silence outside, and with a swift gesture of her arms, the stone around her and the others crumbled away. The sight before them left everyone in shock. The once beautiful Air Temple was in ruins. The pillars that once stood for centuries had been toppled, and its pieces scattered around the main entrance. Piles of stone and debris littered the area around the Gaang, but all of this was expected after a massive display of power. One sight however, was not immediately present once the group emerged. N'Dare was nowhere in sight, the spot where she once stood, or hovered as the case, was now covered in stone.

"Where… where is she?" Zuko asked softly.

Panic began to creep into his voice, as the worst possible thoughts began to invade his mind. Watching N'Dare ascend into the air by a strong gust of wind left the Fire Nation prince in awe. He had witnessed Aang perform similar acts in the past, but to see another person perform a long since lost art of bending was mind-boggling. Watching her was both frightening and beautiful at the same time. She looked so natural at what she was doing, and the look in her eyes…

"We have to find her, she could be hurt." The commanding tone in Aang's voice was apparent to everyone there. He was not about to let this be the end of everything, she couldn't be dead, not now. Leaping into the air, Aang jumped to the first group on boulders he came across. Brining his fist down with all his might, the huge boulder shattered into hundreds of pieces. There was nothing underneath, and with a hard stared he carried on to the next.

The Gaang, including Zuko, watched as the Avatar went from one cluster of rocks to the next, using earth bending to clear the area in search of N'Dare. Soon the others began to help clear the debris, all of them hoping to find the girl alright. Aang was using every method of bending that he could to move rocks out of the way, it was an arduous task, one that would surely leave the group extremely tired, but they were fueled by the hopes that N'Dare would be found… and alive. The feverish hunt came to an end, when Toph sensed moving under a pile of rocks a few feet away from her.

"I think I've found her!" the blind girl yelled, drawing her arms closer to her body, and stomping her foot on the ground, cause the boulders to hover in midair.

Zuko and Aang were the first to make it to Toph, and when they got there, both held their breath in anticipation of the condition N'Dare would be in. Once the last of the boulders where removed, the prone body of N'Dare lay motionless on her back. Fear gripped Aang's heart when he saw her; she didn't look as though she was breathing. Zuko walked over to her and kneeled before her, before placing her head gently in his lap. He had told his Uncle that he would look after her… he had promised that he would do everything that his Uncle asked. Now all of that was a lie, he couldn't even make sure that the one thing that his Uncle asked him to do was taken care of.

"I'm sorry… I should have…" Zuko choked on his words, not being able to bring himself to say that he had caused her death. He hadn't known the girl all that long, but losing her like this caused a dull pain to form in his chest. He couldn't say that he liked her all that much, cause they had only known each other a few days, but in those days, she managed to reach a part of him that took others months, if not years, to get to. She was so easy to talk to at times… when she was snapping at him.

Aang on the other hand was going through his own personal grieving process. He had known her far less than Zuko, and never really gotten a chance to speak with her, but the connection was still there. The two of them had so much in common. He had wanted, needed, so much for her to be just like him, an air bender, so that he wouldn't feel so alone, and when she had began to hover in the air, his heart began to race. Finally there was someone that he would be able to talk to. Even with Katara, who he felt so much towards, couldn't completely understand what it was like being the last person of your race. And to have that aspect of his past returned to him seemed like a gift come true. But now that gift was taken away, just as swiftly as it was delivered.

The rest of the grouped lingered a little distance away from Zuko, and the girl lying in his arms, unsure of what to say. For a long time he was their enemy, now in this brief moment, almost consumed by his grief, he almost seemed human. The nurturing side of Katara wanted nothing more than to tell him that everything would be okay, that he could move on from this. But her anger and resentment from the past would not let her.

Sokka watched the image in front of him, it was tragic yes, but he really couldn't bring himself to feel any real pain. He had seen and lost many people from this war, some far more close to him than this girl. So he had learned long ago to dull himself from the pain of loss caused by the Fire Nation… that was Katara's specialty. Looking over towards his sister, Sokka noticed the contorted look on her face. She looked as though she had just eaten a sea prune, the way her lips were down turned. He could tell that she was fighting with herself on whether or not she should say something. He had long since figured out that something had changed in her towards Zuko. In the beginning, she hated him just as much as the rest of them did, but now her anger and hatred seemed to stem from something far greater than any of them were aware.

"Look… Zuko, I'm sorry about your friend…" Sokka tried his best to be the supportive and compassionate one, since it seemed as though Katara would remain mute on the matter.

"You're sorry?! You didn't even know her; you didn't even try to give her a chance! All of you condemned her since the moment she got here, simply because she was with me!" Zuko yelled out. None of them really knew who N'Dare was, and most likely didn't even trust her because of him. He was about to finished telling Sokka and the others what they could do with their sympathy, when N'Dare began to sputter and cough.

"N'Dare…"

She continued to gasp desperately for air, until her airways decided to cooperate. Her eyes sprang open, and the light of the sun assaulted her eyes. Her lungs felt as if they were on fire, and she was currently feeling the onset of a massive headache, one that she was sure would out perform any other that she ever experienced. Her vision began to clear, and she was greeted with the relived faces of Zuko, Aang and the others.

"You're alive!" Aang said overjoyed. He had never remembered being this excited in a while, and this good news overshadowed all of the current bad events of the past couple of days.

She couldn't speak immediately; her coughing hadn't fully stopped, she then brought her hands up to her eyes, shielding them from the harsh sun.

"Here, drink this." Katara offered her some water from her pouch.

N'Dare gulped down every drop of water, welcoming the cool liquid into her enflamed throat. When she finally got her coughing and breathing under control, she looked at her surroundings and the group of people surrounding her as a whole. Everything was in ruins, the entrance hall to the temple looked as if an atomic bomb had went off. Everyone looked disheveled, Zuko was even sporting a fresh scratch on his chin, no doubt from when he was thrown several feet into the air after her little display. This wasn't supposed to happen; she wasn't supposed to lose control like that.

She was no better off than she was before, or maybe she was worse off. At least when she didn't have powers, she didn't hurt the people around her. For as long as she could remember, she wanted to be just like her mother, and now that she was, she wasn't sure that she wanted to be anymore. It took Ororo years to learn to master her powers, and even after all those years training herself, she still was in need of improvement. It was only after she had meet up with the late Professor Xavier, did she truly learn to master what was bestowed on her.

But N'Dare had no such person to teach her how to control such powers. She wasn't even sure of the limits of her abilities; the only aspect of weather that she was sure that she manipulated was the winds themselves. But that alone was enough to decimate and entire area, so what would it mean if she was able to do that with the entire weather system? That thought alone gave her pause, she was certain now that she didn't want that much power, she wasn't even able to control what she currently had.

Maybe coming to this world changed her mutant abilities; maybe she was limited to controlling the air, since it fits with the abilities of the local inhabitants. She consoled herself with that prospect, and decided that's what was to be, she wouldn't be gaining any more than what she had. But what she had was still too much; she had hurt those close to her… again. She couldn't imagine what she would do if she was the cause of any of them getting hurt. Looking at each one of them, she could hear them all asking if she was okay, but in truth, she really didn't know how to answer. Physically, yes, she was fine, but mentally, she was in turmoil. She had to make a decision, one that would see that no one got hurt on account of her.

"I'm leaving…" she interrupted the barrage of questions of whether she was okay or not.

Everyone stopped in mid-sentence, shocked at what was just said, none more so than Zuko. She was leaving? She couldn't be leaving; she had nowhere to go. And why would she be leaving? Everything was happening so fast the he really couldn't wrap his head around it.

"What do you mean leaving?"

N'Dare turned sorrowful eyes to the one who had asked the question, it was Aang. She looked deep into the boy's eyes, and she wasn't entirely sure, but she could have sworn that she saw a glimmer of hurt and sadness in them. She had only spoken a hand full of words to the boy that she had learned was the Avatar, and his friends, so walking away from them really didn't hurt as much as walking away from Zuko. She hadn't known him long either, but the two seemed to finally be hitting it off, and dare she say, actually becoming friends. Once she got over his abrasiveness and his brooding mood, he was an okay guy.

"Exactly what it means, leaving as in going away!" she thought that making them hate her would make this a lot easier, at least for them anyway.

"Hey! Don't yell at him!" Katara was quick to jump to Aang's defense. She still didn't trust this girl or Zuko, so if she chose to leave, that meant nothing to her, but was not about to let her yell at Aang only for asking a question.

"I'll yell at whomever I want! Your little bossy tactics may work on your little friends, but they sure as hell don't work on me, so just BACK OFF!" that came off with a little bit more venom than she was going for, but the more realistic this seemed, the better, she had to make a clean break, it was best for everyone.

"What did you just say to me?!" Katara's anger was at its peak. She couldn't believe the nerve of this girl, after all that they had done for her; she was acting like a total witch.

"Do I need to speak more slowly for you, or dumb it down?" N'Dare rose onto her feet, brining her staff with her. She got in an aggressive pose, showing the other girl that this was not game… or was it?

"Oh I like her," Toph said. This was becoming more fun by the minute. She hadn't met anyone who really went against Katara other than herself, and it was an amusing sight seeing someone get just as upset with her and her perfectionist was as she did.

The two began to stare each other down, Katara with her water whips ready, and N'Dare grasping her staff firmly. The whole time that N'Dare was yelling and snapping on the others, Zuko remained silent. He was trying to make sense of what was going on, and to figure out a way to get N'Dare to sit down and talk to him about this. He couldn't just let her go; his uncle would kill him if he just let her go off on her own. Seeing that the situation between N'Dare and Katara was getting more heated by the second, he stood up and made his way between the two of them.

"Okay, everybody just calm down." He tried to settle the tempers before they flared even further out of control.

"Tell that to your girlfriend, she's the one acting crazy!" Katara spat, being held back by her brother.

Zuko's cheeks turned crimson at the title that Katara had put on him and N'Dare. N'Dare on the other hand didn't seem to pick up on the insult that was just thrown her way, and instead continued to try and push the subject.

"Well maybe if you had a boyfriend, you wouldn't be such a prude. Honestly how did these guys put up with you and that attitude for so long?"

This was getting out of hand, if something wasn't done soon, there wouldn't be enough people in all the nations to hold Katara back. Zuko turned and looked N'Dare directly in the eye, trying nonverbally to get her to calm down, but by the looks of it, that wasn't going to work. He placed his hand on her shoulder, forcing her to focus solely on him.

"N'Dare, you should calm down. Let's just talk about this, and try and figure some things out?" he pleaded with her, hoping that the girl he had those talks with in the cave would return.

"I don't want to calm down! I just want to get as far away from all of you as possible. None of you understand anything right now, and trying to pretend you do won't make matters any better!" N'Dare shrugged his hand off of her shoulder, and pushed passed him, heading down the cliff and into the wooded area.

Everyone watched her go, even more confused than before. One though was beginning to understand what was going on. One thing stuck out when she was yelling at Zuko that struck a chord with Aang. None of the others did understand what was going on with her, none that is except him. He alone understood what it was like to be connected with the air to such a degree. He understood how scared she must have been, that the powers that she controlled could hurt those around her.

Zuko was about to run after, and try and get her to talk, when all of a sudden he felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned around to see that the hand belonged to Aang, and the look on his face was the most serious he had ever seen the boy.

"I'll go talk to her…" Aang waited for Zuko to nod his understanding, and brought the wings of his glider out, and turned to give a reassuring smile to his friends. Without another word, he leapt into the air and soared away.

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It had been hours since he left the group to find N'Dare, and even after all that time, he hadn't found any sign of her. He had searched everywhere; there was no way that she could have gotten that far on foot. The sun had begun to set, and his hopes of finding her was starting to fade with the last rays of sunlight. He was heading back to the temple, when the sounds of singing caught his attention. It was unlike any song he had heard before, or any language. Whoever was singing it sounded alone, sad… and nearby.

He walked through the brush, until he came to a ledge overlooking the entire forest. Sitting on the edge of the ledge, singing the somber melody, was the person that he had spent the better part of the day looking for. She didn't even seem to notice that he was even there, and he wasn't sure how or if he should interrupt her. The sadness behind her voice was enough to bring anyone to tears

Hush now, my baby
Be still love, don't cry
Sleep like you're rocked by the stream
Sleep and remember
My lullaby
And I'll be with you when you dream

Aang couldn't understand a word that she was singing, but with the emotions behind the lyrics, he was more than able to interpret their pain. The sense of loss and longing was the most pronounce feeling that he was able to see in her and the unshed tears that were glistening in her eyes was a big indication also.

Drift on a river
That flows through my arms
Drift as I'm singing to you
I see you smiling
So peaceful and calm
And holding you, I'm smiling, too
Here in my arms
Safe from all harm
Holding you, I'm smiling, too

N'Dare's soul felt tortured; she didn't want to leave, but she knew that to stay meant to hurt those near to her. She couldn't do that, not even to Katara, even though the other girl did somewhat get on her last nerves. But there was no other choice, until she was able to better control her abilities, she couldn't put the others at risk. A lone tear began to make its way down her cheek, realizing that she had already lost them, before she even had a chance to gain them.

Hush now, my baby
Be still, love, don't cry
Sleep like you're rocked by the stream
Sleep and remember this river lullaby
And I'll be with you when you dream
I'll be with you when you dream

Aang listened as N'Dare finished the last of her song, and watched as the tears that she was fighting so hard to hold back, make their way slowly down her cheek. He thought that now was a better time than any to let her know that he was there. Making his way towards her, he began to mentally go over what he would say. He was never really good at comforting crying girls; normally Katara was the one to deal with that. But know it was his turn, he was the Avatar after all, and if he couldn't deal with a crying girl, then how would he be able to take on the Fire Lord? The moment he took a step into the clearing leading to the ledge that N'Dare was perched on, the girl's attention snapped towards him, and without a word, her staff was fully extended and sent hurdling at his head.

Thanks to his training, Aang's reflexes were quick, but only barely. The staff embedded itself in the tree directly behind him. His heartbeat was going faster than he was ever able to run, and he couldn't help but let out a small squeak.

"Aang?! Goddess, I didn't know it was you. How did you find me?" N'Dare quickly began to wipe the tears from her eye.

"I came looking for you, and when I heard you singing…" Aang turned and looked away, pretending to not see the tears. "You have a beautiful voice. I never heard a song like that."

"It was a lullaby my mother used to sing to me when I was younger. It was in Arabic." She gave a soft smile at the memory of her mother holding her in her arms while she would sing her to sleep.

"Is that the language you use in your nation?" it was an intimate question he knew, but this would give him his first insight into who N'Dare really was.

"Something like that… why did you follow me?" she asked suspiciously

"Well you just ran off, and I wanted to make sure that you were alright," he said while rubbing the back of his neck, trying not to let his embarrassment show.

N'Dare watched the younger boy in front of her shift from one foot to the other in anticipation. He was worried about her, after everything that had happened at the temple, and him only knowing her for a few hours, he was worried? She was desperately hoping that they would just let her disappear into the darkness and not think twice about her, but he followed.

"But why… why do you care?" he knew nothing about her, yet he cared enough to follow her?

"I don't know… I guess I kind of understand what you're going through. For a long time I thought that I was the last air bender, and now you show up, and suddenly I don't feel so alone." The honesty in that sentence left N'Dare staring at the boy.

She hadn't thought about how her powers emerging would affect someone else, but had she been thinking clearly, she would have to say that if it would have touched someone, she would have certainly thought of him. Zuko had told her how the Avatar was the last air bender, and even if she wasn't an air bender entirely, she could understand the misconception.

"I was afraid… I was afraid that I would hurt someone." She turned sad eyes unto him. "I have lost so much in such a short period of time; I didn't want to be the cause of any of you getting hurt." this time she didn't try to hide the tears, there was no need anymore, she was just so tired that she didn't even try to explain away her complacent behavior.

"I can help you, I can teach you how to air bend, that way you won't hurt anybody by accident," Aang suggested vehemently.

"I don't think that this will be the same as what you're used to," she tried lamely to dissuade him from offering his help. If she was wrong about the extent of what she was capable of, she didn't want things to get any worse. Though her excuse was flimsy at best, and Aang was able to pick up on it, and pressed forward.

"No really, I can help. I was trained by the best air bender in the world, Monk Gyatso. Of course, being the Avatar has helped, so I think I could help you control it." He actually thought that he was getting through to her.

"I don't know…" she was still hesitant to accept his offer, but it would make sense for her to be trained by someone who had as much insight as he did.

"Come on, it'll be fun. When I had to be trained in the other styles of bending, I had the best teachers, and everything worked out. Pleeeeeaassee…" Aang could see her beginning to crack, and so, to seal the deal, he thought to use the baby face. Poking out his bottom lip, and causing it to quiver just slightly, that and in conjunction with his glassy eyes, he was sure that she couldn't say no.

N'Dare looked on at Aang in near dread; she hated it when people used the puppy dog stare on her. Rachel used to do that all the time whenever she wanted to get her to do something, which normally tended to get them into trouble. She could feel her resolve crumbling under that stare, and soon she was begging him to stop.

"Alright… alright, I'll come back, just don't do that. You're worse than Rachel."

"Alright!!!" Aang smiled victoriously at her concession, but then stopped halfway in his victory dance. He had heard her use that name before, when she was half awake in the temple. If they were going to be spending a lot of time around one another, they would have to learn to trust each other, which in other words meant telling a few things about who they were.

"Who is that?" he saw the confusion on her face, so he continued. "Rachel, you've said that name before. Who is she?" he watched the different emotions play across her face, before they finally settled in a mask of finality.

"Come on." She walked up to Aang and grabbed him by the hand.

"Where are we going?" he asked confused.

"If I'm going to answer your question, I would rather like to answer it only once. So we're going back to the temple, that way I won't have to repeat myself."

She continued to drag Aang back to the trail that she took earlier, in her quest to get away from the others. Aang was so delighted in not only the fact that N'Dare would be returning with him, but also to allow him to train her, so much so that by the time they were reaching the base of the temple, it was he who was dragging her. When they finally reached the temple, all the debris had been removed, leaving the entrance almost as it was before the incident.

"Aang, you're back. I was beginning to worry." Katara made her way over towards Aang. When she got closer, she was able to spot N'Dare directly behind him.

"N'Dare… you came back?" Zuko questioned. The whole time that she was gone, he had been silently hoping that Aang would be able to convince her to return, but his hopes weren't that high. What he did know of N'Dare, was that she was a very strong-willed, and stubborn person, and once she was set on something, then she wasn't going to be pushed into something else.

At first N'Dare made no response to his comment, she didn't know what to say. She had said some pretty hurtful things before she had left, and was more than aware that a simple apology wouldn't suffice. She looked to Katara first; she knew that she would have to be the first she apologized to, since she was the cruelest to her. She walked to the water tribe girl, her face a mask of regret, before stopping a few feet away.

"I'm sorry… I didn't mean all those things I said earlier. I had no right to yell at you or anyone else. I was upset and confused, though I know that is not an excuse."

Katara only listened at first, absorbing everything that N'Dare was saying to her. Her apology felt real, and if she was to be honest with herself, she never really did give her a fair chance. She had automatically assumed that the girl was up to something, simply because she was accompanied by her arch enemy, and that wasn't fair. She hadn't always been like that; at one time she would have given anyone an opportunity. But the war had changed her, and not particularly for the best. It had changed them all really; no more were they children trapped in an adult situation. Now they were warriors in their own right, trying desperately to survive.

"Apology accepted, and I want to say that I'm also sorry. I didn't give you a fair chance. How about we start over?" Katara extended her hand to N'Dare, smiling pleasantly.

"I'd like that." N'Dare took the offered hand, sealing her commitment with the other girl.

The group as a whole watched the exchange, some with mixed emotions. Toph was happy that everyone was getting along, but felt a little disappointed that she would be the only one to give Katara a hard time. Sokka was more intrigued than anything else. His mind was going over ways of how two air benders could really help them out in the war. Zuko on the other hand was relieved; he hadn't failed in his promise to his uncle, and N'Dare had returned.

Soon N'Dare's eyes caught that of Zuko's, and she instantly remembered what it was the she was to do next. She had been withholding information from them long enough, and if they were to truly trust one another, than she would have to give them little more than vague details of her past.

"There is something that I need to say… to everyone." She spoke nervously.

The group fell silent, all wondering what she was referring to. Aang knew that she was prepared to tell them who she was, and made no effort to figure out what she needed to tell them; he would find out soon enough. Everyone waited patiently for N'Dare to continue. Taking a deep breath, she prepared herself to relive the final moments of her once happy life.

"There have been things that I have been keeping from you…" she looked pointedly at Zuko, before encompassing the rest in her line of vision. "All of you. There are things about my past that I would have rather been kept locked away and never to return, but I realize now that in order for us to trust one another, I can't keep secrets that can potentially harm the rest of you." She paused and waited to see if anyone would respond, and when none came she continued.

"I haven't been completely honest about my origins, but that is a mistake that I am prepared to rectify. I guess, first off I should start by giving a more formal introduction, as is customary in my home. I am N'Dare Jamilla Zuri Ade… princess of Wakanda." A resounding collective gasp could be heard around the campfire, the revelation that N'Dare left everyone at a loss for words.

"You're a princess?!"

"Wow!"

"I knew something was up with her."

Everyone was talking at once, all that is except Zuko. This would explain a lot of things about her. Being raised as a royal himself, Zuko was able to pick up on a few tell tale signs, the way she carried herself with elegance and grace, how even at her worse, she still remained poised. It also somewhat explained her fighting capabilities, the styles she was using must have been taught to her by someone very skilled, skilled enough to train someone of royal blood. But that still left one question unanswered…

"What nation is that a part of?" his question was direct and to the point, no more hiding behind vague responses, or shying away from the question all together. The others thought the same thing, none of them had ever heard of such a place.

"Well… that is one of the things that I haven't been up front about. You see, I'm not from any of the nations that you are all aware of. My home is far different than anything here, so much so that I don't believe we are even from the same world." She tried her best to explain to them the current situation, even though she didn't rightfully understand it herself.

"What does that even mean?" Sokka was becoming more confused with each passing second.

"It's kind of hard to explain." She was getting nowhere fast, and the more she tried to make sense of it, the worst it became.

"Not the same world, do you mean like the spirit world?" Katara tried to offer some help in trying to explain things better.

"The spirit world?" now N'Dare was becoming confused.

"It's where the spirits of the earth live. As the Avatar, I'm the bridge between the spirit world and the physical one." Aang clarified.

"Oh, well no, it's not the same thing; I think it best that I start from the beginning. You see, in my world things are a lot different. Pretty much nothing is the same; we don't have benders where I live."

"But you're an air bender, so you must have benders there," Toph reasoned.

"No, that's not what I meant, people in my world can do extraordinary things, yes, but it's not done the same as you do it here. The people of my world were not bound by simply controlling the four elements; they were gifted with powers just as unique as the people themselves. There were those who were capable of flight, without the aid of the winds. Some who were blessed with the abilities to read ones minds, and others far more powerful." The last part she was referring to her mother.

"How were they able to do those things?" Aang was even more intrigued by N'Dare, and her home.

"They… we were what was called mutants, born different from other humans, and gifted with powers that few were able to comprehend."

"What happened to them, why did you leave?" Katara's caring nature had reemerged, wondering what could have driven N'Dare away from her people

"I didn't by choice…" her mood changed dramatically by the question, as she was aware that it would. "It all happened so fast, we weren't prepared for it. It was my birthday, I had been training with Rachel all day, but that night, we had decided we would enjoy ourselves. Rachel and I had known each other our entire lives; she was more like my sister than anything else. Her mother and my mother were friend's years before either of us were born." A faraway look had settled over N'Dare's eyes, almost as if she were reliving a memory.

"My mother was queen of Wakanda, after my father was killed in the war against the humans. They were persistent, hell-bent on destroying the likes of my mother and people. The war had dragged on for years, stretching to the far reaches of the world, until no place was safe for mutants. The few bastions of mutant civilizations soon began to yield to the brutal might of the humans, until all that was left was Wakanda."

No one spoke as she revealed to them her past. Everyone listened intently as the girl before them retold the last accounts of her life.

"The humans soon discovered that the mutant race wouldn't go quietly into the night, so they designed a plan to strike back, and fiercely so. They began construction on a mechanical man, one without the frailties and emotions of a person. The creatures were cold, heartless and wasted not a second to destroy anything in its path. But evil only begets more evil; soon the creations turned on their masters, bringing about the end of those who brought them into being.

"Fearing for the safely of her people, my mother sealed away her city, the last hope of the human race. It was heartbreaking for her to know that she would be leaving the rest of the world to its fate, but she knew that there was nothing more that could be done. Years had passed since the city was sealed away, the creatures, known as sentinels, could not penetrate deeper into the city walls, and life for those within the walls continued.

"We thought we lived in a utopia, but we were only fooling ourselves, for all good things must come to an end. On the day of my sixteenth birthday, the sentinels managed to breach the walls of Wakanda, flooding our once peaceful home with wave after wave of cold blooded monsters. The protectors of the city, who were not only my mother's guards but her most trusted friends, went out to protect the innocents that lay beyond the protection of the palace. Little did they know that they were rushing headlong into their demise.

"My mother was the first to leave the palace to defend her people, and as the battle outside raged, so did another one begin inside. A few sentinels had managed to enter the palace undetected, and began a massive onslaught of those inside. Rachel and I were the only ones able to stop the creatures from killing everyone in sight, but we soon learned that we weren't enough. We fought hard, or at least I thought we did. But it wasn't enough… and on that day I lost someone more close to me than she will ever know…"

The pain of reliving that tragic experience was massive. Seeing Rachel's prone body in her arms, covered in blood and lifeless tore a gaping hole in N'Dare's heart, one she was certain may never heal.

"I watched as the one I called sister died in my arms, and I wanted nothing more than revenge. I foolishly tried to take on something that could have easily killed me, not caring about the consequences or the damage that was already done to my side."

Zuko sat up instantly; so that was the cause of her injury, and why she didn't wish to talk about it.

"My anger must have blinded me, because no sooner did I approach the monster, did it have me in its hands, preparing to end my life. But once again I was spared the fate that had befallen others around me; my mother was there to rescue me. We traveled to the citadel, hoping that there was some way to reverse the event of the past hour, but soon did I learn that that was not the purpose my mother had in mind.

"My mother had taken me there to prepare me for what, at the time, I didn't know; now, however, I have an understanding. There was a part of me that she locked away years ago; a part that I never knew was there. It was from her that I got my abilities to command the winds, and on that day, she returned them to me. The moment was bittersweet however; at the time she was preparing me, the doors to the chamber were blasted opened, and after that, I remember nothing.

"In no more than a few hours, my life had gone from pleasantly peaceful to hell on earth. Everything that I had once known was gone, never to return. I had lost more in one night, than any one person should loss in a lifetime, and it has plagued me ever since. In one night, I had loss my entire family, aunts and uncles, a sister and ultimately my mother."

The tears were set loose like a floodgate. She had hoped that, with time, her pain would slowly peel away, but that time had yet to come. She cried openly, not bothering to hide her face from any of them. Zuko was the first to his feet, and while N'Dare sat hunched on her knees, crying her heart out, he did everything he could to console her and show that he was still here. The Gaang soon followed suit, acting on Aang's eagerness to show his support.

"It's okay, you're not alone anymore; we're here," Zuko whispered softly in her ear, her arms circled his back and held on for dear life. She was in so much pain that she feared if she didn't anchor herself, she would surely fall into insanity.

Everyone stood there, looking at the scene of Zuko softly consoling N'Dare while she continued to cry. None spoke much during that time, but all had come to an unspoken understanding that tomorrow would be the start of a new day; everyone doing as much as they could to understand the other more.

To be continued…

A/N: Well that brings to an end another chapter. I hope you all enjoyed and I look forward to writing the next installment.