Hello hello! Long time no see, eh? Life has been so so hectic lately, as I've been re-adjusting to life back in the States and working my buns off here in Colorado. I love my job (currently doing outdoor education) but goddamn is it tiring, both physically and mentally. Not to mention I've been struggling with adult life/romance issues and so my brain has been in a lot of stressful places these past few months. Y'all are troopers for sticking with me! I promise that I'm in this till the end - no matter how sporadic my updates may be.

So this is a rough re-entry into this story, because I was tired of letting my blocked muse get in the way of continuing Dakota's tale. Forgive me if it feels rough, because it is, but I also am pretty pleased with how it turned out considering how stubbornly i wrote it haha. On the plus side, we get a new POV! Originally i was planning on just keeping it within the main benders (aka Aang, Katara, Zuko, Toph and Dakota) but quickly decided nah to that, cuz we have a ton of cool characters that I'm dying to delve into! Don't worry, an Obi POV is in the works for all of you Obi fans (if there even are any)!

Chapter Title Inspiration: "Fade" by Lewis Capaldi

As always, I hope you guys enjoy the chapter! If you like it and have any thoughts/concerns/an intense desire for more...

PLEASE REVIEW!


Chapter 5: Running Near On Empty


Dakota's dreams were troubled, full of pressure on her chest and the feeling of a giant hand pulling her into icy water. No, not icy; the ocean had shifted into the cool rush of a glowing river—the river that had drawn her away from the trail, away from everything.

True sacrifice is made out of love, the Ocean Spirit said to her, his voice deceptively gentle considering he had just dragged her into the sea and was most likely drowning Zhao somewhere nearby.

Just as Dakota was beginning to panic—not from lack of air, because she was dreaming and it wasn't real, but from the memory of it all—the touch of a familiar hand on her cheek chased away the cold.

With a shuddering gasp her eyes opened. She was lying in one of many fields of gray grass, a melancholy song floating along the edges of her awareness. Elysium, she had half-jokingly named it all those months ago. Being there meant that—

"It's been a while, Dakota," Hadyn's voice commented from beside her, the sound quickly followed by hot fingers brushing against Dakota's forearms. She couldn't help the flinching that resulted, her entire body jolting away from the sudden contact. Hadyn's breath caught at that and Dakota found that she couldn't quite find the strength to look up at the spirit sitting beside her.

What was there to say?

"Azula will suffer for this," Hadyn promised, her voice soft but carrying enough rage to effectively chill the air. Dakota shook her head as she forced herself to meet the spirit's gaze. Those black eyes were difficult to read but she managed to catch a glimpse of the sadness lurking in them.

"No," Dakota said vehemently. "It'll only continue the cycle and I just…I can't," she whispered, wishing she was dressed in her usual long sleeved tunic so she could pull something over the scars. She'd have to resign herself to the fact that in this odd world, she wore old jean-shorts and a red tank top. Part of her wondered how she ever found the shorts comfortable—after so long without them, the fabric felt rough and clung uncomfortably to her skin.

Another part was glad that her mind hadn't forgotten where she came from, hadn't let her forget the lemony smell of the detergent her family used and the coins she had stored away in the tight pockets. Almost instinctively she reached in and counted them—they came together to form one dollar, just enough for the popsicles sold at the corner store near her house. She and Henry always stopped by there on their way back from family hikes—

"Dakota, focus! I don't have much time," the fire spirit exclaimed.

A spark of anger took shape in Dakota's chest because was that guilt in Hadyn's gaze?

"Funny, you've always got just enough time to pop into my head and whisper some vague stuff to me but never enough to actually help. Tell me," she coldly commanded, lifting her arms so that the burns were within the spirit's direct line of sight. "Did you know that this was going to happen?"

Hadyn's gaze lowered. "You need to understand, I couldn't—"

"Did you know?" Dakota repeated, pushing up until she was on her feet and looming over the spirit. An icy touch of horror slid down her spine as the silence stretched longer and longer with no response.

No, the silence was the response.

Dakota choked out a slightly hysterical laugh before turning and running away into the grass fields. Ignoring the sounds of Hadyn calling her name and scrambling to follow, she began to search for an exit. Pausing, she tried imagining a door before her, a way out, only to let out a low curse when she opened her eyes to find nothing but rippling grass. Shouldn't she be able to control this stupid in-between world?

"I'm so sorry—" the spirit began.

Dakota didn't let her finish, whirling around with fire tingling at her fingertips.

"I don't care!" she screamed. Hadyn's face sagged in shock but Dakota didn't care, barely even noticed, because the anger had narrowed her focus until it was a burning thing, on the verge of setting the grass around them aflame.

"I don't care that you're sorry because guess what? I almost died," Dakota seethed. "Zuko chose to betray us and go back to his abusive father and psychopath of a sister—but I guess you knew about that, too? Aang, the only hope for this entire world, is dead. What is the goddamn point of spirit magic if you're all too high and mighty to actually use it?"

Hadyn's eyes shone with a reddish glow and her sharp teeth flashed as she snarled in anger. The sound was so reminiscent of an animal that it made Dakota's anger stop in its tracks—surprise briefly replaced it.

"We can't interfere in the way you humans want! Part of having the power is the curse of not being able to prevent terrible things from happening! I tried to help, I did, but there's only so much I can do from the other side."

Dakota gritted her teeth. "And all that crap when we met, about me dying? What was that, then?"

Hadyn's mouth opened but closed just as quickly. The spirit's fire-hair flickered, an extension of the dark emotion currently clouding her expression.

"The futures of human change so quickly that it's impossible to know for sure what they hold. In that moment, I didn't know we were bonded, and thought…"

She trailed off, turning her face away.

"I had never had a human see me before," she admitted in a rush. "I thought you were just like the others, unable to hear me even as I whispered bits and pieces of their future that I had seen."

Dakota frowned. "I thought spirits were only connected to their specific humans?"

The corner of Hadyn's mouth quirked downward. "During the Solstices, we gain the ability to travel beyond the boundaries of the Spirit World. Coming into contact with the other world gives us glimpses of what comes after—for humans, the feeling is like when a breeze blows and you get a sudden chill."

Dakota's skin suddenly crawled with that same chill; as if Hadyn's words were the breeze she spoke of.

"So you saw my future."

Hadyn's eyes snapped to her at the hollow deadness to her tone. In an instant she was embracing Dakota tightly, the warmth seeping through the chill and scaring away some of the panic. The spirit's heat felt both familiar and foreign, like a childhood memory that was heavily muddled by the passage of time.

"My vision wasn't specific enough to say when or where, but Dakota, of course you'll die—all humans do! I said it because I…I was angry at humanity for having…" Again she paused, and this time her voice tightened with barely restrained emotion.

"They have an end, a finite amount of time, and so if there's pain it can't last for long. Their lives are a series of ups and downs; it's in their nature to change and move forward. Meanwhile, I…I simply am. I was…."

Dakota thought about the snarky fire-spirit she had met that night so long ago, remembered the eerie gleam in those black eyes. The gleam had been envy, she now realized.

"Jealous," Dakota finished. Hadyn huffed angrily but jerked her head in a quick nod.

"Pretending I was happy about humans dying helped me forget that I never would—that I can't change no matter how much I want to," Hadyn muttered. Dakota frowned at that.

"But you're bonded to me—doesn't that mean our lives are linked?"

Hadyn's lips twitched in a sad smile. "I thought so for a while, but Roku oh-so-kindly reminded me that I had existed long before you, and therefore our bond is an incomplete one. Your existence in this world is bound to things greater than simple elemental spirits and so if you die…I'll continue on. It's what I deserve, most would say."

Dakota blinked back tears at the raw pain curling along the edges of Hadyn's matter-of-fact tone.

"You deserve to choose," she snapped to no one in particular. Hadyn gasped at that, her eyes wide as she stared up at her like she had never seen Dakota before. Without warning, the spirit burst into sobs, tears of fire trickling down pale red cheeks. Dakota panicked, trying to calm the spirit while also wracking her brain for what she had done wrong.

After a few minutes, Dakota realized that the spirit was smiling through the tears.

"I do, don't I?" Hadyn said, almost hesitantly, as if she were afraid someone would overhear. Dakota didn't answer, staring out into the gray fields and wishing more than anything that there was a way for her to see what Zuko was doing right now—even if it was something bad, she longed to just see him, to take in the

Hadyn's hand slowly touched hers. Dakota allowed it, forcing back the tiny flicker of panic and letting the warmth soothe rather than aggravate.

"I try not to check up on him too often, because I can feel your sadness when I look at him, but every now and then I take a peek…"

Dakota's chest tightened to the point of pain. She bit down on her tongue, hard, to prevent herself from asking all of the questions begging to be asked. Hadyn's warmth increased, silently combating the sensation of sinking deeper into the cold darkness that surrounded thoughts of Zuko.

"He thinks about you all the time, Dakota."

Dakota jerked her head to the side as it to avoid the jabbing ache that accompanied Hadyn's admission, but the pain came all the same. If he thought about her so much then why did he stay gone? Thinking about her meant what, exactly?

The world was shifting again. She had felt it enough times to recognize it for what it was—she was waking up, which dissolved the dream world in which spirit and mortal planes could meet.

Dakota turned to look at Hadyn. The spirit was staring right back at her, her dark eyes—once so inhuman and unnerving—alight with fiery determination.

"I'm here and I'm fighting for you. You're not allowed to give up, you hear me?" the spirit demanded, lifting one hand and calling a flame to her palm. Dakota felt the heat even from a distance, felt the burning call to keep going, and couldn't help but lift her hand in response. If she closed her eyes, she could almost fool herself into thinking that the fire was hers.

The threat of tears burned behind Dakota's closed eyelids.

"I can't…I haven't been able to since…" she breathed, breaking off when the words threatened to shift into sobs.

"What did I tell you the second time we met, when you couldn't even make smoke?" Hadyn asked, the question sudden enough to make Dakota open her eyes and stare down at the smiling spirit.

Reddish-gold fingers drifted down to press into the place where Dakota's heart steadily beat.

"Love freely—" the spirit began.

"—and the fire will come," Dakota reluctantly finished, putting her hand over Hadyn's much hotter, dryer one. "But how can I do that when Zuko—"

Hadyn's eyes sharpened just enough to make Dakota remember just how not human she was.

"Why are you so convinced that the love has to be for someone else?"

And with that, the world shrank and shrank, fading into blissful darkness. The last thing Dakota felt before opening her eyes to the wooden ceiling of her cabin was the heat of Hadyn's hand burning an unseen brand on her skin.


Luka was in the middle of a loud and unproductive meeting with the other clans' scouts concerning trading routes when sounds of yelling and rough collisions reached them below deck. At the sound she raised her hand to command silence, feeling a brief flash of pride at how the room immediately quieted. The many years of demonstrating her strength—and the very public showing of that strength against those who ignored or underestimated her—hadn't been wasted, it seemed.

"Typical Lelino tsumien," Oman muttered under his breath, inciting a ripple of chuckles among the gathered gypsies. If it had been anyone else, Luka wouldn't have hesitated to show him or her the true definition of 'savages'. As it was, the Treska Clan scout's brand of humor was an acquired taste but never malicious and so the Waterbender let it slide.

"Continue with the meeting while I deal with this," Luka curtly commanded, ignoring the murmurs that followed her when she turned to ascend the ladder leading to the upper deck. Spirits, the scouts were as bad as the healers sometimes—ruthless gossips to the core, the lot of them.

She wrenched open the circular door with much more force than necessary. The sounds of fighting were louder, now, and Luka felt irritation tickling across her skin as she swung herself up and turned toward the training decks. Normally she didn't mind a good, rowdy training session, but thanks to the unexpected Rena Clan's—not just the Clan's, a nasty reminder came from the depths of her mind, but her—presence, tension was her constant companion.

As if hearing her innermost thoughts, she stepped onto the platform overlooking the training area and almost collided with Evani's back. The lean, muscular shoulders shifted as the Earthbender turned—probably to snap at whoever dared to invade her space, even if by accident—but when her kohl-lined green eyes met Luka's, the girl's mouth snapped shut.

Luka's jaw tightened at the gentling of Evani's gaze and she pushed past the gypsy to see what in the world was going on below.

Two female gypsies were wrestling in the circle of chalk, the shorter of the two's face bloodied in a way that was never allowed on Lelino territory. Her heart nearly stopped when she recognized the pale, unnatural golden hair. She lurched forward, about to yell for the combatants to stop because Dakota wasn't anywhere near ready for serious combat yet!

"What, afraid that your little pet will get hurt?" Evani's voice murmured close to her ear, the other girl's body so close Luka could feel the heat of her even through the layers of clothing. Her mind couldn't help but flash back to times spent just like this, Evani's hands sliding down Luka's ribcage as the taller gypsy's hips pressed forward and effectively caged her in—

"You did this," Luka seethed as she turned to confront Evani head on, not caring that the girl had managed to evoke such a strong emotion from her and not caring that she was supposed to be remote and detached.

Evani shrugged. "Hey, the reskimala started it. Wiat is just defending herself, that's all," she said.

Luka knew, as surely as she knew that she was a Waterbender, that the Evani was lying but also knew that the Earthbender would never admit it.

She heard a hit land, hard, behind her, and turned to see that Dakota had taken another hard punch to the face. The girl was gasping for breath but there was something sharp and almost electric in her expression that made the Waterbender pause. It was the first time since rescuing the girl that Luka had seen her look fully, truly alive.

"If you interfere now, the Clans will never respect the Lelino's claim to her—you know it, don't you?" Evani's tone was soft, softer than Luka had heard in months.

The last time she had heard the softness had been the last night they spent together before Evani had been sent away on Rena Clan business, bodies desperately pressed together in Luka's bed as they stole their last touches until after the Gypsy Gathering, when they would be reunited and finally be—

Luka felt a familiar hotness swelling behind her eyelids and grimaced to erase the sensation. She wasn't a child that fell blindly in love and broke just as quickly; she was the next Chieftess of the Lelino Clan and she would not dwell on things that would never be.

"All I know is that you threw one of your best fighters into the ring with a girl who's still recovering from being tortured by the Fire Nation Princess and then left to die in an ice-cell," she snapped, ignoring Evani's sharp intake of breath and instead keeping her eyes locked on the slender Firebender who was fighting with everything she had.

But would that be enough?


Dakota had been minding her own business when Wiat had picked a fight with her. Ignoring her had been easy at first, like ignoring Henry on the days he purposefully chose to push at her buttons, but then she had started talking about Zuko.

"I hear that you're sweet on the Fire Nation Prince. I always knew that your kind were bloodthirsty, but to actively chase after a murderer? That's low, even for a Firebender. Tell me, how did it feel to know that he left you for dead? After all that's happened I can't say I'm surprised—"

Dakota's fist had slammed into the girl's gut before she could think to walk away. And instead of feeling guilt or surprise at her violent reaction, she had felt pride. Gone was the girl who ducked her head and accepted the abuse, gone was the crying, sniveling girl from before.

The Firebender spat out a glob of blood as she dodged Wiat's next jab, remembering Iroh's lessons and trying to breathe as steadily as she could: if she panicked, she was lost.

Wiat had stopped smiling a few hits ago, the skin of her cheek marred with a slowly forming bruise. Dakota eyed the coloring flesh with a surge of smugness—sure, her right wrist hated her for landing such a solid blow, but it had been worth it to see the arrogance fade from the older girl's eyes. Served her right for being a goddamnn bully.

"I'm done playing around, eria," Wiat spat; the emphasis on the last word made it clear it was a slur of some kind. A careful mixture of pain and adrenaline made Dakota brave, brave enough to shoot back:

"Too bad I don't speak that language, otherwise I'm sure I would have been devastated at what you just called me," she mocked, laughing almost hysterically when Wiat responded with a solid push to her stomach with the aid of a solid disk of earth she had created from the pouch of dirt at her waist. The skin felt hot to the touch when Dakota rolled to her front, propping herself up on her elbows as she coughed past the nausea rising in her gut.

Wiat advanced, her dark brown eyes snapping in a way that they hadn't before. "You don't deserve to wear that shell," the girl hissed, gaze locked on the red shell hanging from Dakota's neck.

Dakota staggered to her feet, reaching up to touch the necklace in question.

"Jealous?"

Wiat let out a cry of pure rage, lashing out with her bending once more, but this time Dakota was ready, jumping up to avoid the sweeping line of earth underfoot and calling on that fire that had evaded her grasp for so long. For the first time since her arrival into the Avatar world, she didn't think about Zuko—or even Iroh—when she sought out that inner flame inside of her. She didn't think about Zuko's warm golden eyes as he reached out a hand in order to share fire, she didn't think of Iroh's steady strength as he demonstrated a more complex Firebending technique.

No, this time she thought of Aang. His life was over but his world wasn't. The universe that Henry adored so much was still there, still alive, and Dakota felt a surge of something deep and foreign as she lunged forward.

I'm still here; I'm still able to fight for that happy ending—

White-hot fire exploded from her palm before she could focus too intently on the strange energy surge. The feeling of that warmth after so many weeks without it was so comforting that tears sprung to her eyes. It was Hadyn's fire, she realized, and the thought filled her with renewed strength.

She wasn't alone in this.

Wiat's shriek filled the air as the fire singed at her skin. Dakota didn't stop her assault—she advanced just as Wiat had advanced, the small bursts of fire she sent around the girl's form making her dodge and scramble for cover until she tripped over her own feet and fell hard on her backside.

Dakota kept the fire in her hands, crouching down despite the protest of her abdomen and holding the flames up for Wiat to see. The girl's eyes were wide, scared, and with a quick gesture Dakota let the fire dissipate. The training area was quiet as a graveyard, the collective shock a heavy haze in the air.

"That wasn't for Zuko," she loudly announced, because everyone needed to hear it if she was ever going to move forward. Her eyes caught movement from above and something inside of her loosened when she caught Luka's eye. The Waterbender was standing beside Evani, the two gypsies staring at her—the taller with an impassive quirk to her brow, the shorter proudly smiling.

Dakota turned back to Wiat, staring down at the dumbstruck gypsy for a moment before reaching out a hand to help the girl up. The dark-eyed girl stared at the hand as if expecting it to burst into flame again, her expression shocked and conflicted, but to Dakota's surprise she only hesitated for a second or two before reaching up and grasping the offered appendage.

After pulling Wiat up, Dakota held on for a brief moment longer, gripping the hand tightly as she said:

"That was for me."