Total darkness is not as bad as people make it out to be. For the intellectual mind, it can be a haven, of sorts or better yet, the perfect thinking spot. It is in complete darkness that many of the world's brilliant ideas are formed besides on the loo.
My thoughts are different, however. No, I am not a superhuman being with mindblowing abilities to reshape the world by calling upon the elements at a whim's notice, nor am I even a major player in my life's story. I know, it seems rather paradoxical, but as I think in complete darkness after the "lights out" call that I have no control over, I imagine that there were few times in which I had any control over my life and/or its consequences. Perhaps, I am a necessary victim of fate, but then I know what you all would say, I am simply "playing the victim" which is simply untrue. To this, I would tell you that I knew from experience that "playing the victim" is impossible unless one foregoes their autonomy and allows another to enforce their will onto them.
Sound familiar? If not, then perhaps you are a novice or a child who has never experienced love, yourself. Not just any love, but sacrificial love, blinding love or complete submission to another for the sake of love. Now, before I begin my story, I regret to say that I do not know its ending, perhaps when brilliant minds like ours meet again, you will reveal it to me, but please do not do so out of pity. I have had enough of that sort of nonsense for two lifetimes.
Upon waking from the shadows…pun intended. I see the man I call father. A man, now, myself, I stare straight into his eyes with the same likeness of my own, shimmering green as if forever luminated despite the darkness outside the tall windows of the front room with small glimpses of golden light whispering the beauty of the metal city of Zaofu. Slowly, as my future wife and I re-enter the place we once called home with the true idiot my only sister was driven to love at our side, I take in my large family, all gathered with mutual disdain on their faces.
One would think after three years and little to no contact, that this would be a celebratory time, but as evident by my mother's glaring at the love of my life, I knew better than to wish for a mutual understanding despite my love's confidence in my sister's beloved boyfriend's buffoonery.
Instead, I glimpse the display on the table. A small replica of my parents' legacy built together before myself and my siblings were born. My father often called it his greatest work and I am inclined to agree. The city is brilliant and a perfect homage to our estranged grandmother, who discovered the skill of metalbending, single-handedly, by happenstance as she recalled the event for a local newspaper, that she 'Had to go to the bathroom'.
The table stands as a reminder of many things. Protection, oppression and brilliance, but it also reminds me of my love for Kuvira and how together, we would create our own legacy in uniting the Earth Kingdom, at my mother's selfish rejection of the cause.
"I'm not giving up Zaofu. I don't care if you brought your entire army!" Her voice made me grind my teeth. Luckily, I was marrying a different type of woman.
As calm and regal as I've always known her to be, Kuvira spoke back to Mother with an even temperament, despite the older woman's familial trait known as Beifong Hostility.
"Su, I didn't bring my army to threaten you. I wanted to show you all that your son and I have accomplished".
My mother, however, was as stubborn as ever. "You must realize this goes against all your father and I tried to teach you," she directed at me.
I wanted to laugh aloud at this.
"Son," my father added, "You belong here".
Belong? Was the old man mocking me? Years of tutelage under Baatar Sr. had earned me nothing. Unlike him, Kuvira recognized my brilliance and she loved me for it.
"Why?" I asked, an octave lower. "So, I can go on living in your shadow," the power of my words burned my chest at the time and thereafter as each time I experienced this night, I felt the twenty year old wound and reveled in my father's flabbergasted face.
"Don't say that! Can't you see she's brainwashed you?"
I could not help the smirk on my face at my mother's chirping. With each replay of the moment, I only wonder…what if…I had listened?
"Ha! I didn't brainwash him. I set him free". My future wife countered in our defense. "Now he's accomplished more with me than he ever could've with you".
In attempt to deescalate things, Opal's idiot starts talking, but I was beyond done with the conversation and proud to hear Kuvira's threat to force Zaofu's surrender. I had made up my mind beforehand to go down with the woman I loved, no matter the world's archaic views. Someone had to do something.
It is now that the story gets stranger. Now, I must remind you of my ignorance to its ending. The blur and pain of darkness, brings out the brilliance in me again. Perhaps, I have discovered the ways of time travel because I wake once again in the front room, the door was opened, but this time the buffoon is not present. My future wife and I enter and I glimpse the replica of Zaofu on the table.
"I am not giving up Zaofu, I don't care if you brought your entire army!" Mother's voice came right on schedule, except this time, she was in a fighting stance.
I realized the absence of Bolin had been foolhardy, yet Kuvira did not gloat about being right all along to bring him into our inner circle.
"Looks like it's gonna be a great brawl," she proclaimed, assuming a stance as well.
Anger at my family's insolence boiled as I stared down my twin brothers. One of them made the first move at which Kuvira countered. No one expected my sweet little sister to step between a pointed metal blade in attempt to stop the fighting, however.
"No!" I gasp, forcing the memory to end, but reality is too much so I inflict more pain until total darkness forms and the dream begins again.
Pain, darkness and the decorated table. I decide to keep the buffoon in the picture this time around, but leave out Kuvira. Watching Opal severed in half from her blade was enough to make me not want to see the uniter this time around.
Despite The Great Uniter's absence, I still had a mission. Yet, this time upon entering the front room, the place was completely lit with artificial lights and servants distributing tea. I felt…missed and loved by the family I thought loathed me. Instead of my mother's angry voice, it was Father who took a sip of his tea and said calmly, "Hello, Son, we have missed you so. You belong here".
With that, he gestured to a place for me across from himself and the metal city's matriarch. I took a seat next to Opal, glaring at her boyfriend with a crooked, foolish smile on his face.
"What is it, Bolin?" I asked flippantly.
"Ha, Ha, oh…um, you know, nothing, Baatar. I just kinda wanted to sit there, actually".
Feeling generous with the warmth of this scene, I waited until the boy was outwardly shaking before shrugging with a smirk and giving my sister an affectionate pinch on the cheek.
"Fine," I said, standing and giving up the seat. "But I'll be watching you, closely".
Bolin gave a shaky smile as Opal stuck out her tongue over his shoulder. We sat around the room like old times, the tension temporarily lifted, and a sense of belonging burned my chest instead of the usual contempt. I decided that I preferred that feeling over the previous times I had ventured into this realm. When I made up my mind to tell Kuvira to leave Zaofu alone, I felt truly liberated and excited about this time around.
As Bolin and I made our exit to return to camp, we are met face to face with a mini-canon several feet away, glowing steadily brighter in pink arrays that blinded the eye, forcing us to lift our palms to shield our faces. I glimpse my future wife's scowl on the trigger end of the canon and my eyes widen.
"Goodbye, Baatar," I hear before the darkness, pain and reawakening.
Hmm I think, looking from the table's replica to my scowling family for a countless time. Perhaps I am the problem? What if I remove myself?
It is here that my story ends as I warned you before. Even a brilliant mind has difficulty recovering from some things. Removing myself from my own story has yielded a different ending that I hope to know soon. Even as the sink in my tiny cell drips with red liquid from my numerous travels through time, the pain has lesson with each slice on either pale wrist. My glasses were destroyed by a fellow prisoner's giant, well-placed boot, so I am sure that the blots on the porcelain surface are not as large as they appear.
One final time. That's all, just one more venture into the past. I have so many ideas and ways to change that night. Maybe I could marry Kuvira first? Or have Avatar Korra appear? Picking up the glass shard from my bifocals, I smile at the mirror at the many possibilities after the pain, the darkness and the reawak….
Prompt: Deja Vu/Groundhog Day
Bonus Prompts: table, "Looks like it's gonna be a great brawl". Kuvira
Word Count: 1600 plus