Two men walked through an alien landscape. Both were tall and strong, but they were glowing blue and partly translucent. They looked around with curiosity and watched unreal animals and plants pass by them.
One of them was very large, with broad shoulders. He was bearded and had braids in his hair. He was covered in muscles and he walked forward steadily.
The other man was slightly shorter, bold, with a small beard. He had arrow tattoos on his head and on the backs of his hands.
"Aang, why did you bring me here? I thought we established that I was wrong and there are no spirit portals on either Pole."
"I remember, but I also had faith in you. You rarely steered me wrong. So, I investigated and found that there are portals, only not in the physical world. Hence why we meditated and how we got here."
The taller man grunted with annoyance.
"You know that I was happy that I was wrong about this place. As much as I loved your story, I hated everything to do with your future. Finding out that it was false, it gave me hope that things would get better. Now, I feel like you crushed my dreams with glee."
The tattooed man chuckled.
"I simply take offense at how much you dislike my future incarnation. I am sure I will be a lovely and delightful lady that you'd love to get to know."
"Yeah, sure. With the company I keep, I'm unlikely to outlive you."
"Oh, come on. I am the Avatar here, it is more likely that I croak first and you will have to look after my kids and my future self. It will be great."
The big man huffed and turned to face away.
After a minute he turned back.
"So, why are we here anyway? I was right about the portals, big deal. We don't actually need to be here, your future life will deal with this."
"I don't feel like leaving this to the young and inexperienced girl in the future. What was it you liked to say, Don't delay till tomorrow things you could ruin today? I want to fix this issue and ensure it doesn't threaten anyone for a long time."
"Aang, do you even have a plan?"
"Of course I do. If everything is fine, we will observe and wait. If everything goes bad, throw you at the problem."
The taller man rolled his eyes.
"Who is the Avatar here? You are supposed to be solving problems, not me."
"And my solution is the generous application of Viteq, applied to the problem area and allowed to cool."
They slowly approached a massive tree, wrapped around a giant pearl. Light played across its shiny surface.
As they walked closer, they could see that something was hidden within. To the apprehension of both men, a dark spirit was sealed inside, writhing and ramming into the barrier that held it. It confirmed that the legend that Viteq knew from his past life was real and that the Dark Avatar was possible.
Viteq gestured with his hand, allowing the Avatar to get closer. Aang raised his eyebrow at his friend.
"I really have no desire to get any closer to that thing. You have enough power to go toe to toe with it, I don't."
Aang sighed but stepped forward.
He looked over the barrier and peered inside. The spirit within looked back and the hatred that radiated off of it was palpable. For a few minutes they stared at one another, until the malevolent spirit reeled back and slammed itself against the barrier.
"RAAVA! I CAN FEEL YOU! LET ME OUT AND FIGHT ME! YOU KNOW THIS PRISON WON'T HOLD ME FOR MUCH LONGER!"
Aang stepped back, startled. He saw that the surface of the pearl rippled under assault and he felt that it was close to breaking. Something inside him stirred.
He felt his Avatar state activate outside of his control. His mouth opened and an ethereal voice spilled out.
"Vaatu. It seems your cage has weakened. No matter, I will seal you back inside soon enough. This world doesn't need you. It has no place for chaos."
"FOOLISH. You lie to humans, preach about peace and order, tell tall tales of balance. But what is Balance, without me? You lord over humans, impose your peace on them! For the hundred years you weren't around, humans advanced further than in thousands of years before that. I will end your Tyranny soon!"
"You will do no such thing. The seal has weakened, but it is a temporary problem. I will stop you and save the world from your corruption."
"And how will you do that? To imprison me again, you must first set me free. Will you be able to defeat me then? Will you be able to trust your host? Will you turn back on your ally?"
Aang stiffened and the mention of Viteq. His head turned slightly, his glowing eyes peering at the waterbender standing behind him.
The man made a dismissive gesture and shook his head.
"Don't bring me into this, I didn't want to be here in the first place. Just duke it out amongst yourselves."
Aang thought for a moment and turned back to the imprisoned dark spirit.
"As much as it galls me, the Upsetter helped Aang over their lifetime. He is a useful ally. He taught us many things, shared his secrets. It was he who told me about you and your prison weakening. It was he who brought us here, now. It was he who changed fates. It was He who Upset the Balance!"
With the echoing voice getting louder, Aang turned around and lashed out at VIteq. It seemed that the Spirit of Peace really didn't like him. He jumped away and raised a wall of fog in the path of the attack, hiding from sight.
"I cannot allow you to keep going! This secret must stay buried here! You endanger the Balance!"
Viteq dived to the side and turned more water into fog to obscure the whole area within. The attacks that possessed Aangsent ripped through his cover, but he simply raised more.
Avoiding another attack, he raised his voice.
"Aang, pull yourself together. Get a hold of your magic space carpet! Come on, man!"
More attacks were sent his way. He dodged and raised more cover and moved to the side again.
"Aang! We talked about this. You are the master in your body! You can take control!"
The Avatar turned towards the voice again and was about to send another attack, but his limbs became sluggish, like moving through molasses.
He still sent a wave of fire, but it missed Viteq entirely.
"That's it! You are the master of your own fate. The Magic carpet is just along for the ride, he is a guest, don't let him rule your body!"
Aang was visibly shaking and struggling in place. His hands were being pulled in two directions, his mouth open in a silent scream. His back arched and his face turned skywards, light coming from his eyes getting brighter.
Viteq stood in place, watching the silent battle of wills. He didn't dare to say any more, afraid to distract Aang.
It seemed to last for a long time, the unnatural silence and the lack of any other movement was eerie to be a witness to.
Finally, the airbender seemed to win their contest. A wave of fire and air spun around him and exploded away from him, making all the fog disappear. The light left him, leaving just Aang, who tiredly slumped over and fell to the ground.
Viteq was glad that his friend was able to take back control. He made a step to approach and help him get up, but was interrupted by a sound of breaking glass.
He turned around and saw that the pearlescent barrier had a crack in it. The tree and the ground was covered in black soot, the wave of fire reached it and struck at the shield holding Vaaru in place. It started dissolving and a black, baleful light could be seen coming from the growing crack.
"Oh, that's bad. This is why I didn't want to come here."
He quickly ran up to Aang and picked him up, throwing an arm around his own shoulder. He picked the Avatar up and tried to get away, but didn't manage to make even a few steps before something behind them exploded with great force, throwing them both off their feet.
"FREEDOM!"
A malevolent presence appeared behind them and grew larger. For a few seconds it floated in place, becoming more solid.
Viteq turned and saw a massive black and red carpet like spirit, spinning in place, black light gathering around its form.
"Well, shit."
He shook Aang.
"Man, you gotta get up and stop this. We need you to glow it up again and seal Vaatu back."
The airbender looked at this friend with wide eyes and shook his head.
"I-I can't, Raava was hurt by my rejection, my own spirit aches inside me. If I try to call her, I feel like I will fall apart. Avatar was never meant to turn on their own spirit."
The bigger man cursed under his breath over this development. It was just his luck that the one spirit that could help was the one who set this off to begin with and now couldn't help at all.
The movement behind them stilled and the presence became solid.
"Such luck. To have your foolish vessel turn against you Raava. To let mere suspicion turn you against your own ally. After all these years you haven't changed at all."
Viteq turned to look at the floating spirit. It was terrifying, its very presence invoking his worst fears. It slowly drifted closer, unimpeded by gravity.
"And to have you within my grasp, weak, broken. Unable to resist. I can easily destroy you and bring darkness to the world for ten millennia. This is glorious."
The waterbender clenched his fists and looked up at the approaching spirit. It was powerful, but it was a spirit regardless. And spirits could be controlled and bound.
He turned to Aang, who looked at him with fear. Raising his hand, he stuck his thumb uf, showing that everything will be ok.
He stood up and gathered himself. The spirit stopped its movement, regarding the small monkey in front of it with curiosity. It could never even conceive the idea of being imprisoned again.
Raising his hands, VIteq directed water to rise out of the earth and begin spiraling around the spirit. Many circles rose up in the air, each one connected to the ones above and below by spirals of floating water.
Symbols made of ice and fog formed around the spirit, ancient script coming into being. The spirit tried moving forwards, but he was repelled by the symbols, keeping him inside the boundary.
"STOP THIS! LET ME GO! I WILL KILL YOU!"
The dark spirit raged against its shackles. Its voice echoed, scaring away any spirit that was brave enough to get any closer.
The symbols made of water bloomed and twisted in on themselves. This being the spirit world, they weren't limited by physical constraints, like density, mass or volume. Following the will of the waterbender, the fluid edges of water turned into sharp fractals. Whatever was happening was nearing completion.
The cage around the spirit closed, sealing him inside, blocking his voice.
Symbols appeared over Viteq's body. Lines and circles twisted on his skin. They glowed with unnatural white light and arranged themselves into patterns.
Lines of symbols connected the cage with the spirit with VIteq and dragged it closer. IT moved closer to the waterbender until they touched, where it began shrinking more and more and glowing over his body.
The white light dimmed, turning into malevolent black of the spirit within the trap.
Viteq's skin turned black, red lines and circles over his skin. His eyes turned solid black with red pupils. A third eye opened on his forehead, similar to his other two.
When the cage wrapped around his body completely, the process was over. For a few seconds stood in place, his figure covered with dark light, until it faded inside himself, revealing just the man underneath it all.
Aang stared at his friends with awe. Not only because he managed to stop a dark spirit of enormous power, but also because he could feel the power radiating off of him.
The bigger man raised one of his hands. His eyes glowed black with red pupils and a third eye appeared. All the water around him stopped and began floating upwards, separated into individual drops. He himself floated off the surface of the spirit world.
A deep, rumbling voice sounded through the world.
"This is so strange. I have so much power, all the water is within my domain. If I and Katara fought now, I would easily beat her. Right now, I have no equal. I am stronger than I ever was."
Aang felt something seize his body as he floated upwards and closer to Viteq.
"Even within you, I feel all the water I could pull on and use. Your blood belongs to me. This would be so easy, to reshape the world as I see fit. So many possibilities. So many new options open for me."
The airbender wanted to struggle, to remind Viteq of who he was. But his body did not listen to him, completely under control of another Avatar.
He floated in front of Viteq and felt his own hands rise up and touch his friend's head. They were placed in position to use energy bending. It would seal VIteq's bending, which might stop whatever Vaatu was doing. Aang widened his eyes, he knew what else it would do.
"His whisper is so enticing. It would be so wonderful to be king. To be the god of this world. I feel like giving in. It would invalidate my journey. It would invalidate our friendship. It would ruin everything. While I am still myself, I choose to stop this. Vaatu must not be freed."
He closed his eyes and let Aang move his own limbs. The airbender hesitated for a second, but initiated energy bending.
They lit up, three colors shining from inside them. The darkest black, Aang's sky blue and Viteq's dark blue.
The airbender felt his friend fighting against the malevolent force inside himself. The two pushed the darkness deeper and encapsulated it, locking it away. It shrunk with each second until it was gone, but with it the dark blue also disappeared.
Aang and Viteq fell to the ground. Quickly getting up, the Avatar took a few steps separating him and his friend. Viteq was on the floor, grasping his own chest. Aang bent down and took his hand.
"Hah, it seems this is the end."
"Viteq, come on. You can pull through."
His friend's spiritual body lost some color and began fading.
"I felt my body die just now. That was weird. But don't worry, I did a good job in the end."
And squeezed the hand he was holding.
"Tell Azula, she is a brat."
"I will."
"Tell Toph, she is also a brat."
"Of course."
"Also, delete my browser history/"
Aang looked at his friend stunned. His form became transparent and he lost grip on the hand he was holding, the last remnants of his friend floating away.
"What?!"
He looked around, hoping to see his friend in one piece. But he was alone in the spirit world, standing near a twisted tree. He spun in place, but there was no VIteq. Aang had to return home by himself.
"WHAT!?"