The Mysterious Traveler
(2nd Version)
This is where the real story I ultimately decided to do will start to take affect.
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Avatar: The Last Airbender!
Chapter Twenty-Two:
Just Once
The cold air and heavy rain from the outside disappeared the moment Rin-Shaw and the woman entered the small brick house and closed the door, removing their cloaks to dry.
Rin-Shaw watched the woman walk towards the kitchen counter, grabbing ingredients from the shelves. He continued to stare at her with longing, never straying away as she mixed the ingredients together in two cups and heat up a pot of water with her firebending. As he watched her pour the water into the cups, he felt a desire to approach and embrace her.
After marking his daughter's grave with the sword that once belonged to her, Rin-Shaw had ordered his men to return to camp without him. They protested in fear of his safety, as he knew they would. He normally would have agreed with them, if it wasn't for the circumstances involved. He needed to see her alone.
His eyes studied her brown, goldish hair with longing, unable to look away.
Once finished, she turned around with two cups of Jasmine tea and walked to the table, handing him his own.
"You're favorite if I still remember correctly," she smiled.
Rin-Shaw smiled back and nodded, "Always has-"
"-always will," she finished.
Taking their seats, they began to drink as the rain started to slow down outside. The noise of the raindrops offered a sense of peace around them, despite how dark everything felt.
The woman stared down as tears began to form and fall.
Rin-Shaw watched her with a heavy heart, not knowing what to say to make the pain she was enduring go away.
Like a silent knife, a small gasp escaped her lips and pierced his heart.
The woman shook her head, "Was she at least... happy with you?"
Rin-Shaw drew a breath, "In some ways, she was. But I know she wanted to come back here."
Wiping the tears from her eyes, she tried to suppress them, "I knew she would follow in your footsteps. To make you proud. I've always blamed myself for not trying hard enough to convince her to stay."
The sound of thunder echoed in the distance.
Rin-Shaw reached across the table for her arm, only to pause halfway.
"You are not to blame," he withdrew his hand. "I am."
The woman looked up at him, her eyes heavy with tears, "Rin-"
"Coral's death is my burden to bare, not yours."
He looked at the woman and felt his heart leap at how beautiful she was. Even at her current age, she had retained some of her beauty since youth. If anything, age had improved her in so many ways, and he wanted nothing more than to take her into his arms. Even if it was just this once.
'No!' he declared, banishing such thoughts from his mind.
Caught off guard, the woman's hand reached across the table and touched his forearm, startling him from his thoughts.
Though he wanted nothing more than to marvel in the warmth of her contact, he carefully removed her hand and stood up, reaching into one of his pockets as he avoided her hurt, disappointed gaze.
"I meant to send this earlier," he took out a small bag and laid it on the table. "I'll make sure you get the next one on time."
Without looking back at her, he made his way to the door and touched the handle only to be grabbed by the collar of his uniform and forced to turn around. Meeting her eyes, he felt his heart melt in her blue orbs. She was so close to him that his breath caught in his throat and his heart raced with wild abandon.
"Damn it, Rin!" she cried. "Will you stop being a dog of the Fire Nation and be the man I know?!"
He remained still, refusing to betray his emotions.
"What is it that you want from me?" he demanded in a gentle, authoritative voice.
"You know what I want!" her tears ran free like a river. "We were happy until you decided to join them!"
"I did it to make you proud. To make the Fire Nation proud."
"Those are two different goals, Rin. You've just mistaken them as one and the same. What our nation is doing is wrong! How many lives have been lost to this war? What about our-"
"The Fire Nation isn't responsible for Coral's death!" anger filled his heart. "That leader of those rebels and the so-called Mysterious Traveler are to blame! But I swear to you this, they will pay for what they did to her!"
The woman's eyes widened as she cupped his face and looked deep into his eyes, "Don't do this, Rin! Don't go back and pursue this path!"
"Then what should I do?"
"Come back!" she cried. "Resign from the Fire Nation and stay. You've done more than enough for them. I don't want any more gold that keeps reminding me that you're anywhere but here."
Rin-Shaw felt his heart leap with joy and sadness, but a vengeful cry deep within was too tempting to ignore.
Taking her hands, he slowly removed them from his face and held them with a small grip.
"I'm sorry," he averted his eyes from hers, unable to resist her beauty. "But I can't come back... not yet."
Letting go of her hands, he turned around and opened the door, just in time to see the rain stop and the clouds begin to part, allowing for the moon and stars to shine free in the night. However, he paused at the exit and felt the conflicted in the decision he was about to make. It didn't help when he began to hear crying from behind.
He wanted nothing more than to turn around and embrace her, to turn his back on everything else. It took all he had to take the first step outside the house, to gnore her cries as he walked back to the campsite, preparing to give the order for the return trip back to Gapian.
He silently swore a promise to both himself and the woman he had left behind. A promise he was going to keep, no matter the cost. A promise that turned into a determination.
Severus ran as far as his legs could carry him from the ruins. Despite his robes becoming soaked from the rain and the cold winds making him shiver, he refused to stop. He had no location in mind, only the need to run.
How did she know?
He wished that he never came to this world, that he hadn't taken Lily's place. As much as he regretted feeling this way, there was a part of him that didn't. A break in his defenses that he once trusted when everything else failed him.
The memory by the lake rushed into his head, followed by an overwhelming wave of fear and guilt. And in his moment of distraction, he tripped over a fallen tree branch and landed in a puddle of leaves, mud, and rain. His head was spinning from the impact as his surroundings became disorginated, unable to focus on anything except the way he heart was beating. Every beat echoing in his ears.
Lying there, he began cursing the orb for bringing him to this world, a place he never wanted to be. He wished it had been James Potter who had been the one to touch the orb, so that he could endure what he had. He cursed himself for allowing his emotions to risk his life to save the life of someone who dispised him now. All they ever did was cause more pain.
"WHY THE HELL DID IT SEND ME HERE?!" he cried out in frustration.
Nearly three months since his arrival to this world and he was nowhere near finding his way back. All he had was information about a Wan Shi Tong's Library and an artifact known as an Infinity Orb, both of which he had no idea how to find. And to add on top of that, he's got a Fire Prince hot on his trail and a new enemy possibly out for revenge for the death of his daughter. Not to mention he was now a known wanted fugutive by the Fire Nation.
Everywhere he turned, there was always something getting in the way of his mission to get back home.
His thoughts quickly drifted to Lily, her face being the only connection to his world. He wondered if she was alright, what she was doing in the wake of his disappearance, which he figured was now considered 'his death' by this point. Would she mourn for him? Had she forgiven him for what he called her? Or did she not care, nor forgiven him?
Overwhelmed with grief and self-pity, his eyelids began to close from exhaustion, barely having the strength to fight against it. As the darkness started to take over, he heard something moving in the bushes in front of him. Forcing his eyes to open, he saw an animal appear, it's head sticking out. Meeting its eyes from the bush that concealed its form, he got to his feet.
Unafraid, the mysterious animal stepped forward, it's paws leaving footprints in the mud as it approached him. Its features resembled that of a fox, but without the whiskers, and had the form of a wolf.
As it drew closer, the fox-wolf hybrid stopped within a few feet of him and stared into his eyes without fear.
Suddenly, something hit Severus's arm, making him stumble a bit. He looked down and saw a dark of some kind, sticking out of his skin. Grabbing it, he barely acknowledged the pain as he pulled it off and threw it to the side, only for his vision to become blurry.
He heard another noise came from the bush and looked up to see a mysterious cloaked figure following the creature.
Frightened, he reached for his wand, only for his eyes to widen at the fact that he had left it behind, instead resulting to wandless magic as he got his arms into a defensive position. However, he was met with surprise as the fox-wolf creature growled and leaped forward, knocking him down with its paws and weight. As he fell backward, the animal pouncing onto him, pinning him to the mudy ground. It growled and showed its teeth, holding just within reach of his face.
The cloaked figure walked forward and knelt to one knee over him.
Removing the hood, Severus saw an elderly man with slightly darker skin and white hair, as well as a white beard and two small white whiskers on each side of his upper lid. He also had a scar that went over his right eye, including another that was close to his ear. But it was his eyes that truly caught his attention.
From the bushes came more people in cloaks, holding swords, spears, arrows and bows.
As they began circling around him, the fox-wolf hybrid leaned closer with another growl, just as the elderly man took his sword and used the bottom end to hit Severus on the head, knocking him unconscious as the dart that had hit him began to take full effect, throwing him into a world of darkness.
Figured out who this guy is yet?