AVATAR: LIGHT THE WORLD (The Illevitus Chronicles)

_WARNING THERE ARE TWO VERY TRIGGERING MOMENTS IN THIS CHAPTER_

~AUTHOR'S NOTE: Thank you for sticking around, for this took me a while to come up with, not only from writer's block, but also I've been dealing with some heavy things. All things will heal with time and talking about it, but not reliving things. I'm ahead of schedule with this as is, so I'm excited, now that I'm passed this block to keep journeying with Niko, Scar, and DeMungus. This was a passion project I've had since I first watched Avatar, and to get the space to share it so it can grow is nice. I'm very grateful for that.

BOOK 1

-Air-

Chapter 11

-The Air Nation: Abridged-

Sometimes when Misty overdid the drinking at the office she would get locked in for the night, and sometimes it was kind of funny when that happened. She had everything she needed to survive the night, and a change of clothing. It wasn't ideal; however, there was a large shower room in the backend of the studio, a toilet, a vending machine, and she did once have the hindsight to bring a sleeping bag. Now she was set, but her head was pounding. The only source of relief was locked away in her boss's office sadly. The one cure to end all headaches Jacamo Fei's Fishprin, it was a two in one deal with Omega-3 and fatty acids to help with heart conditions, but also cured any headache with the drawback being the fishy aftertaste.

A clattering sound coming from the steel weather door two stories below startled the news anchor and her pounding head. Perhaps it was Gloria, the nighttime cleaning maid, come to do her rounds- but on a Tuesday? Gloria always asked for Tuesday nights off in particular because it was the best day to catch her brother who was in the hospital receiving treatments and therapy for an auto-immune disease of some nature. Misty always liked Gloria, on occasion she'd come into work and find a custard tart tray laid out on her desk, homemade naturally, and this kind gesture was in return for Misty had donated her entire paycheck for the years to Gloria so she could keep up with the medical costs her brother had incurred. Hopefully if it was Gloria, she'd be able to let her out; however, it usually took about an hour before Gloria even was ready to clean the upstairs studio. First, she'd have to clean the garage out, then wax the Channel 12 news van, and finally dust off the mobile cameras, microphones, and boom microphone. All of which must've just fallen to the ground as there was a low-pitched but loud 'oomph' sound, which meant no one unplugged the boom from yesterday, and there was a break-in.

Misty who was now in the main room began to slowly back up towards her office as the sound of boots rushing up the metal staircase came clanging through her ears. Then there was a quiet that only lasted a moment, Misty froze where she stood clutching a heavy stapler from a desk on her right, and then the silence was broken by the sound of a key unlocking the door.

In rushed two men clad from head to toe with black clothing, Misty screamed as she chucked the stapler hitting one of the two square in the noise, "God damnit!" The taller of the two ignored the other one's painful shouts and began to make a dash for Misty. Misty tried to turn towards her office, but one of her heels buckled and snapped off the shoe. She stumbled for a second then was taken down to the ground by the tall intruder with one arm held behind her back.

Misty was sobbing, "Oh God! Please, don't kill me! I- have money… if that's what you want. I can make your robbery more worthwhile." She gulped, feeling something clothed, warm, and hard on her inner thigh. Then a finger sliding into her skirt's waistband, she was still crying, and internally pleading with God to save her somehow.

"Oh no, I didn't come for money. You just happen to be a bonus," the intruder was starting to slide her skirt down, "I've been dreaming of this moment for a long time, talk about an inside scoop," he whisked her underwear down quick, but a commotion from behind them caught the assailant's attention. Misty could hear a muffled skirmish, but she was still focused on getting away from the immediate danger. She fumbled in the dark with her free hand, finding a cord to a desktop. She yanked the sucker hoping it wouldn't fall on her. The next thing she heard was the rapist crying out in anguish accompanied by the sound of a desktop computer smashing to the floor. Through the chaos she could hear a familiar voice, a voice on normal days she'd detest to hear, but right now it was sweet douchey music to her ears. She could feel the assailant being ripped off of her backside followed up with the sounds of repetitive punches to the gut. Misty pulled herself together and scurried into her office.

About two minutes had passed, there was a knock at the office door, "Misty? It's Dirk, let me in, they are gone now!" Misty slowly reached out for the knob, turned it cautiously and opened it just enough to she Dirk's smug grin peeking through the top corner of the doorway. She opened the door up more and without a word she leaped into his arms, and began to sob loudly into his chest, "Now can I take you out to dinner?"

Misty was appalled at the comment. She pulled back and slapped him across the face leaving a nice red palm mark on his left cheek, but then in a sudden change she pulled him down closer and gave him a peck on the same cheek, "You are an abhorrent, despicable, and guttural man whore. But I guess one date wouldn't hurt… now could you please walk me to my car. I need to go home and shower, even though nothing happened -thanks again to you-, I still feel really unclean."

Night was beginning to fall at the air temple, and as it fell the nighttime gale was blowing through the temple tower causing a pleasant breeze as well as calming vibrations as the wind bounced off the hollowed-out structure. Niko and Mim were finally getting around to some light training. With his foot still bound, but now being able to walk around on it with applied pressure, Niko was learning how to channel air into a streamline. Mim's streamlines had the force of a bullet, whereas Niko's were choppy and fizzled out quick, "Don't get too frustrated with yourself, as the air needs a proper channel and space to flow, so too does your body need to have the space to channel the movements. Once that boot cast comes off you should be mastering these moves in no time."

Niko glared at the older air bender with hatred and disgust. It was an absolute travesty to him that his abusive ex had to be the one who was teaching him how to air bend, "You might be my teacher, but don't coddle me like some child. In fact, I wish to step it up a level, so that way we can part earlier than anticipated."

Scar was sitting in a folding chair that was stationed around an upside-down cardboard box acting in place of a table. She rolled her eyes and tried to settle Niko down, "Yo dude, you won't learn these techniques properly unless you give it time."

Niko swung around on his good foot, "Who asked you?! Last I checked this was my training, MY DESTINY! I can do whatever I want with my own destiny, if I want to speed this up because I hate my teacher's gut I will, and you will stay quiet about it! Got me?" Scar had never truly been on the other end of a mean word from Niko, usually when he was yelling at her the anger wasn't directed towards her- rather it was the only way for Niko to get things off his mind, and his anger would lie elsewhere. This- cut Scar to the core, she started to tear up, but ran off right before anyone could say another word.

Now Niko was alone… with his abuser… The odd ringing started up in his ears again, his throat felt tight and dry, and he was just trying to shut himself off. You give this human too much vulnerability and he will destroy your mind. Besides, you're never alone… It was the voice in his head again, and it was absolutely right he'd never be alone again. He wiped his eyes quickly and turned around to go to Scar, apologize for being a total wad, but Mim was right in front of him now. He quickly held out a hand with a small wet cloth and proceeded to subdue him into unconsciousness. Niko began to panic trying to back away, but he fell on his butt thanks to his boot. Niko attempted to get up, still to no avail, whatever was on the rag left him feeling immobilized as his arms and legs began to limply flop in protest. He didn't even have time to put up a struggle, before he knew it, he was out cold, and at the mercy of Mim.

Scar was sitting at the bottom of the tower's grand staircase shouting muddled words and phrases, incoherently as it were. She didn't have any tears left, in fact, her face was now a tomato red, and her eyes furious pinpoints. She was fidgeting with her nose-piercing with her metalbending trying to bring herself down from this raging point. Suddenly a voice came from behind her.

"Hey kid?" Casually walking down the stairs to the dead end was DeMungus, and Scar was oddly glad to see him, the slovenly man who for once was wearing a shirt. It was beyond bizarre seeing him cover his chest, so much that Scarletta couldn't help, but let out a tiny laugh, "Oh? I thought you were like- upset or something? I can go if you're okay?"

Scar laughed again but this time it lingered, "No your guess was correct, but seeing you no nips is kind of funny actually." She took a long breath in-then out, "Being a best friend is tough sometimes, you get on each other's nerves, you say things with honesty, but sometimes a best friend just wants to truthfully, just be lied to."

DeMungus sat down next to her with his flesh hand holding onto his chin as he rested his elbow on his thigh, "Not really, in the moment people might not want to hear the truth, but eventually they'll come back around." DeMungus was looking down at the floor where an air hermit crab was scuttling along between small crevasses of debris that clogged the exit, "Especially best friends, Niko will thank you for being honest with him, and just keep in mind that you care enough about each other to help lift each other up." In the corner they watched as a tinier crab was given a boost up onto a large piece of rubble by a larger one.

An early dinner was on the agenda for Misty and Dirk the following day, as they both had to report for the evening news later on. Right now, on the air was Radna Gidnovich and Mick Igiunion with the late afternoon news segment. Which was playing in the background of the four-star vegan restaurant Dirk made reservations at. Misty was already finished with her second glass of wine, gesturing towards the despondent and jaded waitstaff attendant whom was holding onto an expensive bottle of red wine that Dirk pre-payed for. "You really know a lot about me, and I don't know anything about you at all. The wine," she held her glass aloft as the waiter poured into her glass, stopping at the recommended level, "I didn't say when."

Dirk took a double take, "Excuse me?"

Misty flicked her wrist slightly implying she meant the wine server, who proceeded to keep filling the glass after heavily rolling his eyes. "Other things too. Like my preference for flowers, you sent that basket last month didn't you, with the bluebells, lily of the valley, and mums…" She lightly swirled her glass to avoid sloshing and was successful, but the charming new anchor was getting quite loaded or at least it was her goal. A part of her couldn't believe she was on a date with Dirk, and that part was more invested in drinking her thoughts away. Yet still she could admit she was having a little fun. "Who told you I like lily of the valley… I never even told my mommy that when she was alive…"

Dirk smiled albeit strained, "They represent hard work and payout, and I figured that was you to a tee," he glimpsed at his nailbeds losing slight interest, and then he looked over at the television noticing the time. "Wow, I had so much fun, but we should be going to do the news… umm… are you okay to broadcast?"

Misty aggressively chugged her whole wine glass and slammed it down to the table by the base, "I'm a broad, and I was casted to tell the news. What the hell do you think?" She blinked at him then lurched out of the booth into his arms, "Or we could play hooky?" She got a little closer to him. Dirk backed up a good few feet from her, he looked like he was about to say something, but he just threw his hands up and left. She turned to the waitstaff, "Excuse me, I'll take that." She pointed to the pre-paid bottle of wine, her favorite, "Wait, a minute." She looked at the glass bottle that would cost a solid day's paycheck, then up to the server's gaze, dead in the eye. "He's tryna get my chair… I think, maybe?" She ran over to the servers in a stupor, snatched the bottle from the now less indifferent waitstaff, and took a nice swig, wandering out, yammering: "That little bitch- take my job- I'll give em a story they won't forget!" She wandered into the street, a truck nearly hit her, but started leaning on the horn only an inch away. "Blow it out your ass- I'm Misty Haverford, and I'm here to stay!"

Makeup and hair took virtually no time for Dirk, and before he knew it, he was seated behind his desk, awaiting his segment feeling very proud and full of himself: a façade the public was familiar with. The producer was running around like a madman with interns at his hips on their phones, all calling Misty leaving messages, or on their phone fervently typing emails.

It was now five after seven and the news was running late, across the four nations people where just watching the unmanned news desks, well not for two much longer. There was a loud noise, like a door being thrown open, then the sound of breaking glass, a crashing followed by muffled words, and finally Misty Haverford was live, "Good Ev-van-ning! Woo- not following the teleprompter, everything is spinnin- damn…" She took a deep breath, "Okay, Misty you can do this- remember senior week!" She breathed out with a loud, "Woo! Our top story tonight, the Avatar has re-reincarnated…"

The whole world was pretty much silent holding on to every word Misty was saying. Even though she was visibly intoxicated on live television, it was still an extreme thing even for Misty to say that without fact checks on the matter. Her porcelain skin tinted red on the cheeks was a certain sign to her viewers that this was a serious matter. This wasn't the first time she aired the news a complete drunken mess. Yet, all at the same time, having the facts to back her up.

Up on the main office floor the room was abuzz with ringing phones and busy words, "Hold on!" A mousy older heavyset woman was busy sorting through phones in a clerical setting, each one ringing louder than the last. This woman's entire crew: only supported by two other girls versus a good fifty phones per girl, but the calls just kept coming in. One girl who was very young and having a panic attack from all the ringing phones, and the other a middle-aged woman of possibly thirty, also visibly pregnant, but she had more of a handle on the situation than the young girl did. "Quincy! Q-Quincy! We need you to pick up line seven, it's president Nochsin! AND GET US SOME HELP WITH THESE PHONES OR FIRE YOUR DRUNK FAG HAG!" The mousy older lady shouted, coughing up a lung from her heavy smoker's voice. She then jumped back to a line at the top row of her phones, "Thank you for holding, this is Eileena with Channel 12. How may I assist you?"

Misty's boss, the studio executive was frantically running from his office to stop Misty. Quincy Majors always knew Misty was a wild card, but that's the risk he invested in when he hired her. He passed his personal assistant Karla, a tall bored-looking woman, who showed virtually no expression ever, and she followed in his stead, "Should I take line seven boss?" Her tone was just as flat and unexpressive as her resting face. Quincy simply nodded as Karla did a quick heel turn on her stilettos, "Eileena, patch the mayor into Quincy's office." She only raised the decibel in her voice, but Eileena heard her. Karla began to barricade herself in the office, pulling the blinds all down, locking the door, and most importantly turning on the wall-mount television to see what kind of damage control was needed when she answered the line.

The channel was always set to twelve, so now Karla was witnessing with the rest of the world. "I met- this woman at the train bombing scene, outside of Ba-sing-se! But- I omitted her from the report, she told me and my cameraman that her friends where the tergert… excuse me, target… that's the word. One of those friends the newest reincarnated Avatar. Trust me… I was skeptical at first myself, but after a few days to think about it- I have a theory-"

Karla was not phased in the slightest by any of this. The light began to flash on the landline telling Karla the president has been patched through. She picked up the receiver and began in her most convincing PR voice, "President Nochsin, hello. I'm aware this looks absolutely terrible, we're working on the-" But she was cut off for a good minute, "I-" once again she was cut of yet not batting an eye, "Oh?" She was somewhat captivated by the President's response, "Understood." With that she merely put the receiver down ending the call. She leaned forward in Quincy's desk chair watching Misty's report, more intrigued now.

Scar was running around the tower like a mad woman, it was about to be a full day since she'd seen Niko, and he wouldn't have run off on her like this, after a fight, but it wasn't even a fight. She'd been trying to find him since breakfast, and the messed-up part was that Mim was missing too. "DEMUNGUS!" She bellowed out as his pudgy face poked out from the training room, "Oh good!" She stopped in her tracks, "I've been looking for Niko all day, and I can't find him. I think Mimiro might've took him!?"

DeMungus simply looked at her sideways, unsure of how to respond. "I'm in here if you were wondering." It was Mim, but this wasn't possible as Scar had searched the training deck a few times today, and couldn't find any trace of Mim or Niko, "DeMungus and I went on a walk this morning to find some baby sky bison. I was going to teach Niko how to approach and proceed on to have a familiar, but I think he beat me to that."

"We found him playing with some bison," DeMungus began excitedly, "he's already made friends with the whole herd practically. Come on we'll take you to him if you don't believe us." Mim was smiling into his long sleeve; however, none of the two seemed to have noticed really.

Mim wandered over right behind them, "Come now, we'll take Pingu." From within his robe he produced a bison whistle, blew into it, but it barely made a noise. Scar just stared at him in confusion, but then, at the window, a huge white mass flew on by.