Last Time…

Wrapping my torn flannel around me as much as possible, I took up station at the back of the saddle, watching the clouds float by below us.

It was hard.

But it had to be done.

I couldn't afford to be emotional.

I bit my lip anxiously.

I had to talk to Roku.

The only hope I had was to talk to someone from the spirit world who might have an idea of how I got here. That's why I refused to back down from asking Bumi about the White Lotus. If I couldn't get into contact with Roku here or he just didn't know the answer to my questions, I could be taught later how to get into the spirit world myself. From there, it would just be trial and error to find someone who could tell me what the hell to do.

But Zhao would be there and I couldn't trust that he wouldn't hurt Katara and Sokka. Zhao was so fucking crazy. He was a wildcard in my mind. All I had to do is make a miniscule change and he could ruin the whole story just by being his insane self.

Ugh. Everything was so risky.

But there wasn't anything else that I could think of to do.

As you can probably imagine, I had no clue what I was doing. I just was grasping at straws. It was just good luck that I actually knew and remembered the story. If fate, or whoever/whatever dropped me here, put me in a show that I hadn't followed as obsessively, I would've been screwed.

Guess I was glad for that. And it was really cool to see everything for myself.

But I didn't belong here.

I wouldn't ever.

"Rei! Guys!" Aang shouted excitedly. I swiveled my head forward and spotted the temple. "There it is!"

The siblings both moaned at the abrupt waking. Katara rolled herself into a sitting position, her eyes widening as she took everything in. As much as I completely agreed with the decision, I had to rock Sokka back awake when he had lifted his head and then flopped back down to keep sleeping.

"Come on Sokka, you gotta get up. We're here."

He tried slapping me away, but I just grabbed his arm and pulled him out of his warm cocoon.

"REi!"

"Suck it up sleepyhead, we're here."

While he moaned and groaned his way to complete consciousness, Katara gaped at the volcano.

"This is where we're supposed to go?"

"Yep, this is where Roku's dragon took me."

"Guess I should've expected something massive involving fire since it's the Fire Temple." She mumbled, looking more anxious than I'd ever seen her before. I grabbed her from behind and pulled her into a light hug.
"It's gonna be fine. Don't get all worked up. You'll only stress yourself out more."

She gave me an awkward smile and sighed, tensing even more as her gaze returned to the black landscape.

Honestly, I wasn't doing much better since it was quite frightening to have a literal volcano right in front of you. And I knew that it would most certainly erupt while we were still on the island. That was terrifying in itself, but, as I've already said, Zhao would be there soon.

Zuko would be there too and I didn't want to get too close to that situation as I really didn't want to turn him bad forever accidentally.

As Appa descended towards the Temple, I descended into paranoia.

"You did it, buddy. Nice flying." Aang cooed, scratching Appa's neck affectionately.

Katara beamed, "Oh, you must be tired."

Katara rubbed Appa's belly.

"No, I'm good. Refreshed and ready to fight some firebenders." Sokka jumped up and down, stretching himself out.

"I was talking to Appa." Katara raised an eyebrow at her brother, who froze awkwardly.

"Oh… well, I was talking to Momo."

Fidgeting widely, I drew my gaze from the ash-covered ground to the tall structure looming over us.

The Fire Temple's stone walls looked cracked and crumbling in some places. Some of the tiling on the roofs was terribly faded from years of constant sunlight. They looked more light orange than their original dark red, pulling me into a memory of one of my baby sister's brilliant ideas to paint our house orange for Halloween. Mom and Dad had been so furious; They nearly took away her Halloween candy. Of course, she got it back through snot and tears.

A distant smile crept onto my face as I remembered how happy we were before everything happened.

"What're you smiling about?" Katara teased and I blinked out of my mind.

I forced a smile on my face and simply said, "I'm just glad we might've actually gotten here in time."

"You sure you're ok?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Let's get going."

Ignoring her concerned look, I started the small trek to the Temple.

At first glance, it definitely looked abandoned. I knew better of course, but Sokka's next statement made complete logical sense.

"I don't see any guards."

"The Fire Nation must have abandoned the Temple when Avatar Roku died." Katara reasoned.

"It's almost sundown. We'd better hurry." After saying that, Aang jumping lightly over the small wall that we were hiding behind and hurried to the open doorway. Sokka and Katara followed and they all ran super quiet-like trying to be sneaky. I raised an eyebrow and just focused on keeping my footsteps quiet as I calmly walked behind them. It didn't matter either way. The Fire Sages knew we were coming. Wish I could remember how this episode actually goes down. I knew everything that happened after the chase from the Sages, but I didn't exactly remember how it started.

"Wait. I think I heard something." Sokka whispered. Slowly, they all turned around and gasped at something behind me.

"What?" I asked, completely oblivious.

Aang pointed behind me and I found the Fire Sages blocking our exit. Oh yeah, that's how it starts.

The lead Sage introduced the group, which I thought was rather polite of him, "We are the Fire Sages, Guardians of the Temple of the Avatar."

Aang relaxed a bit and took a few steps forward. "Great. I am the Avatar."

"We know."

And he threw a fireball at Aang.

"Aang!" I yelled, pushing him out of the way and quickly deflecting the fireball with my sword. "Run guys! Find the Sanctuary!"

"But-" Aang started.

"Go!" I yelled, pushing him behind me, further into the temple.

The leader of the Sages smirked, "You have no chance of defeating us little girl. It would be best just to surrender."

I sneered at the implication, "Never," and I grounded myself, settling into a battle-ready position.

He threw a couple fireballs, that I either dodged or deflected. Surprise lit his face and I was assured that I could actually hold them off for my friends.

"What technique is that? That is no firebending I have ever seen before."

My eyebrows scrunched up and I simply said, "I am not a firebender. There is no trick."

"Very well, young one." He made a quick hand sign and I barely had time to blink before all the Fire Sages simultaneously shot fire at me.

In the volley of fireballs, I deflected maybe two, but probably only one successfully, before being hit and thrown to the wall.

"If the Avatar contacts Roku, there's no telling how powerful the boy will become. Split up and find him. I'll take this one."

With my hands bound to my body with heavy chains, I was dragged along with the Great Fire Sage as he searched for Aang, Katara and Sokka.

As I discovered, the Fire Temple was actually smaller than I originally thought. The passages were just small and all looked the same. Due to the winding floor plan, we came across the other Sages fairly frequently. Except of course Shyu, but I knew where he was. The Great Sage kept grunting and grumbling as the search dragged on and I got the distinct idea that he had never had this much excitement in his entire life. He was actually quite bad at the whole searching thing. Even if the group wasn't within the secret passages below the Temple, the Fire Sages were just running around randomly like headless chickens and it would be insanely easy to avoid them.

"You know, your technique isn't that good either."

The Sage glared at me, almost effusing anger into the air.

I just continued, because needling evil people is just the funnest activity ever, " I don't mean your firebending. That's fine, but obviously, you've never had to comb this temple looking for something before because your strategy is all off. Y'all are just running around looking instead of systematically clearing different areas."

He literally growled at me and just kept dragging me along. I snorted and let him use his stupid non-plan.

A loud explosion rumbled throughout the Temple and the Great Sage paused. He shouted, "Get to the Sanctuary!" He started running himself through the corridors. It was actually quite easy to keep up even with my arms being tied up. Not that I think it's a disadvantage, but the guy seemed like he was at least 60 or 70 years old.

Along the way, we met up with all the rest of the Sages and found Shyu standing in front of the Sanctuary doors.

Shyu explained, "Come quickly! The Avatar has entered the Sanctuary!"

"How did he get in?"

"I don't know, but look at the scorch marks, and down there."

Shyu pointed to the bottom of the doorway where a shadowy figure moved around.

The Great Sage nodded, "He's inside. Open the doors immediately before he contacts Avatar Roku."

Grunting loudly and thrusting their fists forward, the Sages blasted the door and it opened on its own.

Sitting there, with his face covered in ash, was Momo. He sneezed, very adorably I might add, and looked up at the Fire Sages standing there stunned.

"It's the Avatar's lemur. He must have crawled through the pipes. We've been tricked!" The Great Sage fumed, but before he could do anything about it, Momo jumped on his face and took him down to the ground.

Sokka and Katara each grabbed one of the Sages. Shyu got the one nearest to him and I backed up near the entrance.

"Now Aang!" Shyu yelled, but there was no response.

Katara shouted, "Aang, now's your chance!"

Tussling with Zuko, who held him quite tightly, Aang came out from behind a column.

"The Avatar's coming with me."

In the confused pause, the Fire Sages all turned on their captors. I edged towards the door and the Great Sage shot me with a fire blast. Seriously, that dude needed to plan things out more because his blast just pushed me closer to the doors, albeit helplessly lying on the floor. I pulled myself up with a great deal of momentum and stumbled my way past the doors.

"Close the doors, quickly." Zuko commanded before getting kicked down some stairs by Aang.

Aang ran towards Katara and Sokka, who were being chained up to a column.

"Go!" Katara yelled, nodding to the closing Sanctuary doors.

Without hesitation, Aang changed course, barely jumping through into the sanctuary as the doors slammed shut behind him. The light was hitting Avatar Roku's statue and a clunking noise was heard behind us. I started at the noise, but figured that it must've just been Avatar Roku keeping the firebenders out.

Aang thought out loud, "The light hits the statue and I talk to Roku. So, why isn't anything happening?"

Aang moved further into the room, whipping around looking for anything that would tell him what to do, and exasperatedly shouted, "Why isn't anything happening? I don't know what I'm doing! All I know is airbending! Please Avatar Roku, talk to me!"

Roku's statue turned red as the sunlight engulfed it. His eyes glowed white. Synchronously, Aang's eyes began to glow as well and he fell into a sitting meditative position.

I stayed back by the door and sat down against the wall. Eyeing the glowing statue of Roku, I said, "I'd love a chat if you're not busy. Maybe you can tell me what to do like you're doing with Aang."

Nothing happened.

Oh well.

I closed my eyes, sighing heavily, because I thought I'd be waiting for a while. When I rolled my head back to rest it against the wall, I fell down onto my back as if the wall wasn't there at all. Opening my eyes and getting into a protective crouch on instinct, I found I was in a different place. Avatar Roku stood a few paces away from me, looking like someone spilt his tea on purpose, and that person was me. My eyes widened and my mouth fell open.

"Young girl, why did you come here?"

I stood up, shifting from side to side, and my voice failed to work correctly. After reddening severely, I cleared my throat and mumbled, "Well, I didn't really have a choice. I just woke up here. It wasn't exactly my idea to be in this universe."

His stern expression did not change and he reprimanded me, "You have no place here. Aang has an important mission. He must defeat Firelord Ozai. You will be in the way. We Avatars can see the past, present and future, but ever since you arrived, the world has been in flux. You must leave this place. You can not travel with Aang."

Now, during his long explanation of how I did not belong, I went through various stages of grief over how he didn't like me. When he finished talking, I had landed on petulance and ranted, "Hang on, I know the future too. I've seen it. I know what I have to do to keep the timeline intact. I'm not gonna screw everything up. I'm not an idiot. And I'm not a little girl. I know how to fight." I stomped my foot hard against the ground as if that proved my strength. "I can protect Aang. I'll make sure everything goes to plan."

Rubbing his forehead stressfully, Avatar Roku gazed at me with a mixture of emotions that I could not identify.

"I understand that you think you can handle this world, child. You remind me so much of myself at your age. Your youth causes you to have little control over your emotions and your strength. You will hurt the Avatar more than you can help him. I understand that you feel a sense of loyalty to him. It is best if you leave him behind."

Honestly, that did make sense, and I might've considered it if he hadn't said the next sentence.

"You do not belong here."

I narrowed my eyes. Fog started to appear and I figured that meant the solstice was ending. I squared my jaw and claimed confidently, "I'm not leaving Aang. I care about him too much now." After he scoffed, I took a beat to glare daggers at him. "Maybe it's selfish of me. In fact, it definitely is, but you know what? I will protect Aang with my life. That should be good enough for you."

Roku frowned severely at me. "I don't know where you come from, but you must not interfere young bender."

Everything froze and my mind went blank. The fog started to rise up from the ground and thickened rapidly.

"Wait!" I shouted, "What do you mean bender?!"

Pulling myself up from the ground and inspecting my surroundings, I found the temple already crumbling around me. Outside the Sanctuary, my friends were standing at a window and looking terrified at the destruction. A large falling rock landed right next to me, sending me into a panic. I sprinted out of the Sanctuary as the floor began to give out and jumped out the window, nearly missing Appa as he swiftly took all of us up and away from the self-destroying temple.

"Rei!"

Drunk on adrenaline, I gave him a big smile and said, "Hey Sokka. How's it going?"

"What happened to you?" He demanded, forcibly checking me over for injuries.

I waved him off, saying, "I just got captured temporarily. And found out that not only the Avatar can contact the past ones. It's all good."

Aang perked up from within Katara's embrace.

"He talked to you? What did he say?"

I scowled, "He made it clear he didn't like me. Apparently, I'm a bad influence on you all." I let out a big breath. "He told me to let you go on without me."

"Well, we're not doing that." Katara said, "You're a valuable member of our team and we're not leaving you."

"Yeah, who else would keep us all accountable?"

I pushed his shoulder playfully. "Shut up."

He laughed and gave me a hug. I gave in for a minute before pushing him away. "Okay okay. Let's get some rest. Today's been extremely tiring."

As they soundlessly followed my instructions, I thought about what Avatar Roku said at the very end of my vision. What the heck was up with that? No, he must've been mistaken. I can't be a bender. I'm not even from this universe.

A/N: I've had a realisation that I still haven't completely figured out where this fic is going. Oops. No need to panic, I'm still gonna keep uploading each new chapter on Wednesdays. Once we get to the end of season one though, I'm gonna take a bit of a break to fully flesh out the story and fix any plot holes I can find in the already published chapters. That's not gonna happen anytime soon, probably at least 12 chapters until that point. I just wanted to give y'all fair warning. Hope you enjoyed this chapter and have a great day!