She hadn't been able to dig Kiviuq and Nami out of the solidified metal. Her fingers were beaten bloody on the hard metallic surface, but whatever force had allowed her to control it had disappeared. It didn't matter. Her brothers were dead.
Chun and her gang jeered at them the entire time. Shouting and calling for the authorities as the distraught siblings tried to overcome their shock and despair. Eventually Heiwa scooped up an unconscious Ko and the other two followed her as she sprinted out of the alley, Chun's voice following them as she screamed for the White Lotus to come and take the Avatar away.
"Ko, wake up," Heiwa sobbed. She was clutching her little sister's body to her chest, her bloody hands wiping a sticky strand of hair away from the younger girl's closed eyes. Ko's breathing was very shallow, and it was getting shallower.
"Can you heal her?" asked Massak. He'd stopped crying not long after they'd settled into the new alley, the four of them hiding behind a pile of storage crates so that they couldn't be seen. He had wet streaks running through the dirt on his face, his eyes were red from crying.
"How would I heal her?" Heiwa asked in a quiet voice. There was a hitch in her breath as she wiped Ko's cheek with a grubby thumb. "Wake up, Ko. Please?"
"Someone told me waterbenders can heal people," Massak continued. How could he be so calm? Even Pikatti was huddled away from them, hugging herself and shaking. Heiwa distantly heard her twin make a distressed choking noise.
"Who told you that?"
"Just someone."
Ko's breaths had all but disappeared. Heiwa couldn't quite place how she was doing it, but she could feel the younger girl's heart beating weakly. Erratically. Not with her hands though. She could feel it with her back pressed against the wall, and with her legs, curled up on the rough concrete.
"I don't know how to do that. I don't think I can."
"You made the walls melt," Massak said flatly. She had, but she didn't know how she had done it.
"It doesn't matter," came Pikatti's hoarse voice. It took a lot of effort for Heiwa to tear her gaze away from the girl laying in her lap, but she managed. Pikatti was glaring daggers. Like her brother, her eyes were red from crying. Unlike her brother, the tears were still falling. "She's dead."
"No," Heiwa responded defensively. "She's still-"
"It doesn't matter if she still breathing, or her heart's still beating. She's dead. Or she will be. She can't," Pikatti choked on her next words. "She can't survive that."
Heiwa wanted to scream at her sister, but she knew Pikatti was right. Ko was fading fast, and there wasn't anything any of them could do about it. Ko had closed her eyes from the last time back in that alley, and she was never waking up again.
"Can I hold her?" asked Massak quietly.
Heiwa didn't want to let go of the young girl in her arms, but due to their similar ages, Massak and Ko had been very close. She couldn't deny him, so she reached an arm around her little brother and pulled him close, letting the boy wrap one trembling arm around Ko's body.
They stayed like that as Ko's breathing grew weaker, and her heartbeat began to fade. "Pikatti," Heiwa said, when she knew their wasn't much time left. Despite her distress, Pikatti reached back a hand and let it lay on Ko's leg.
And then she was gone.
After a long silence, Heiwa swallowed thickly. "What now?"
"We need to figure out what to do with you," came Pikatti's low voice.
"I don't-"
"How did you do it?" Pikatti asked. Massak looked between the twins, his eyes fresh with tears.
"I don't know," Heiwa responded. "It just happened."
"You're The Avatar, whatever that means. And Chun seemed damn sure the White Lotus was going to want you. We need to figure out what that's going to mean for us."
"But what about Ko?" asked Massak, his voice frail. Pikatti's expression softened.
"We'll..." she seemed to think for a moment, her watery eyes staring at Ko's still body. "We'll take her out of the city. Bury her."
Massak nodded.
"And Nami? Kiviuq?" said Heiwa. "We can't go back for them..."
"I know."
Heiwa began to lift Ko's body, but Pikatti got up quickly and held her down by the shoulder.
"You're not going to like this," she said. "But the two of us need to go somewhere first."
They got cleaned up in a puddle at the end of the alley. Massak was standing guard over Ko's body as Heiwa did her best to get the blood out of her clothes with her waterbending. Eventually they left the boy alone in the alley, his only companion being the still body of his late sister.
As the two of them stood in front of the library, Heiwa took note of her sister. Despite her best attempts, she was still filthy. Pikatti had managed to avoid getting too much blood on her, but there was mud smeared on her forehead and her once cream coloured shirt was torn and browned.
"We're going to get kicked out," Heiwa stated.
"Maybe, but with any luck they'll take their sweet time trying to muster up the courage to actually do it."
"What exactly do you expect us to do in there?" Heiwa asked, frowning.
"Come on." Pikatti grabbed her roughly by the arm and dragged Heiwa up the stairs. Once inside the library, the large wooden doors creaked shut behind them and the two sisters found themselves in a massive room full of tables. The air was warm and the walls to the side were lined with shelves covered in books. She stared up at the high ceiling and the second level of books and doors, circling around the main room.
"Wow," Heiwa said.
"We'll go to one of the ones in the back," Pikatti said. She led the way towards one of the tables at the back of the room, passing a man who was sitting behind a desk by the entrance and watching them nervously. As they walked through the rows of tables, Heiwa noticed that each table seemed to have tablets of some kind on them. They didn't emit any kind of light, but each one had a flickering image on it, displaying different book covers and pictures. People at the tables were flipping through the pages by swiping a finger across the screen.
Heiwa was pushed into a seat by her sister who then sat down next to her. One of the tablets sat on the table in front of them and Heiwa picked it up carefully.
"How does it work?" she asked.
"No idea," Pikatti responded. "This is my first time coming in here."
Heiwa poked at the screen with a finger and watched the display of book covers disappear. In its place was a blank rectangle with the word "search" next to it.
"Avatar," Pikatti said. "Look up the word Avatar."
Heiwa typed in the word using a display of letters at the bottom of the screen. It changed once again, showing a list of titles.
"The Avatar Cycle," Heiwa read quietly. "Avatar History Before Korra, Avatar Aang and the Hundred Year War, Avatar Korra Standardised Pai Sho Rules..."
"The Avatar Cycle sounds promising, plus it's at the top of the search. That must mean something, right?" Pikatti tapped at the screen, her hand coming inches from swatting Heiwa in the nose as she reached over her sister.
It is believed that the Avatar Cycle was created by the spirits in order to bring harmony to the four nations. While benders can only bend their natural element, the Avatar's ability to learn all four elements allows them to act on behalf of the entire world, rather than only their native land. The cycle ensures that the Avatar does not have more of a link to any one nation...
"Could be useful," Heiwa muttered. Benders could only bend one element? But Heiwa could bend two. Chun had seemed convinced...
She pulled her attention away from the words in front of her to watch the librarian, who now had his eyes narrowed. He hadn't gotten up from his seat. "He probably won't let us take this out of the library, will he."
"Probably not," Pikatti responded. She was swiping through the pages again, apparently having figured out how the damn thing worked. Heiwa just let her sister take over as she glanced around the room.
"I wonder if we can find these books on the shelves," she said.
"There are sections listed next to some of them," Pikatti said. "I'll just come up with a list of the books we should look for... Do you see an area titled World History? Or maybe Bending Arts? Looks like this book is in both of them..."
With the librarian still eying them suspiciously, Heiwa and Pikatti ducked into the World History section of the library, which was luckily not far from where they had been sitting. The plan was to grab a few of the books and make a run for it before the librarian could stop them. A library wasn't likely to have very strict security, and neither of them figured the librarian was likely to let them take the books out, so talking to him would be a waste.
They grabbed The Avatar Cycle, Avatar History Before Korra, The Life of Avatar Zhong, and a book called Bending the Elements that was supposed to describe ancient bending techniques. Once they had snuck around the backs of the aisles to get as close to the door as possible, they peeked around a shelf to make sure the librarian wasn't watching them. He seemed to be peering off towards the shelves at the back as though he was looking for something, which meant he wasn't looking at them.
"Go!" hissed Pikatti.
With books hidden under the front of her shirt, Heiwa strolled towards the door, her gaze glued to the librarian and her back stiff with fear. Behind her Pikatti followed, her own loot stashed away tightly under her bosom. The librarian continued to be oblivious to their attempted escape as they neared the door. Soon they were close enough that Heiwa reached an arm out for the door handle.
As soon as her hand touched the handle an alarm began to blare. Pikatti's eyes grew wide and Heiwa's heart almost stopped. The librarian turned suddenly, his eyes on fire.
"Hey!" He shouted.
"Run!" shouted Pikatti from behind her.
With startled patrons watching them, Heiwa wasted no time in following her sister's order. She'd shoved her way through the door, somehow breaking through the metal lock that had activated itself when the alarm went off, and the two of them were barrelling down the main steps before the librarian could get himself properly out of his chair.
"What set the alarm off?!" Heiwa shouted to her sister as they ran around a corner. No one was following them yet, but they weren't going to wait around for the authorities to show up.
"Probably the books!" Pikatti responded.
"Do you think they can track them?"
"I don't know, keep moving!"
They ran at full speed down the street, turning swiftly to the right and making a left at the next street. The two girls continued to zigzag their way through the streets for a small while in an attempt to shake off any potential followers. Heiwa's heart pounded heavily. This was the first time she and her sister had ever resorted to stealing anything! She was exhausted, and hungry, and her thoughts travelled to the dead eyes of her brothers, to her baby sister lying motionless in her arms. She stopped running, knowing that nobody was chasing them, and Pikatti almost collided with her. Heiwa tried to blink the tears out of her eyes.
"Hey..." she felt her sister's hand on her shoulder, her kind face peering at her from behind. But whatever comfort Pikatti had been about to impart on her sister was interrupted by a loud hiss from a nearby alley.
"What the-" Heiwa couldn't believe what she was seeing. A group of teenagers was throwing rocks at a dangerously thin pygmy puma that was pacing back and forth in the entrance of the alley. Its fur was standing on end, ears pressed flat against the side of its head. The puma was bleeding from many cuts and scrapes that muddied its slick fur and it snarled at the teens who were standing next to a quivering youngling. But that wasn't what had gotten Heiwa's blood boiling.
After everything Heiwa had gone through today, from waking up to the White Lotus, losing half of her siblings in mere moments, navigating this whole confusing ordeal about the avatar... seeing that small puma shaking and mewling at the teens' feet, curled up on the ground near what had probably once been its siblings...
And the kids were laughing.
Heiwa growled. Fury built in her chest and before she knew it she had punched a jet of fire into the alley, narrowly avoiding hitting one of the teens in the head. The startled teens jumped out of the way, one of them pressing himself flat up against the wall in an attempt to avoid the second jet of fire that Heiwa was sending their way.
"Heiwa stop!" Pikatti shouted.
"What the bloodmoon?!" one of the teens yelled.
Heiwa lowered her arms, but the glare she sent into the alley had the three youngsters squirming uncomfortably.
"They're vermin," said the only girl in the group, as though that somehow validated what they were doing. The mother puma hissed.
"And that gives you the right to torture them?" Heiwa asked hotly. She could feel the fire in her breath as she exhaled and knew she was dangerously close to roasting someone.
There was a long pause as the teenagers seemed to contemplate their options. They had, at their feet, three dead pygmy pumas and one terrified cub. In front of them, blocking the only exit, was the mother of all four, and a very angry looking set of twins. One of the boys frowned as he looked at them, his head tilting slightly to the side.
"Aren't you those homeless bending twins?" he asked suddenly.
"What of it?" Heiwa spat.
"I don't know why, but the White Lotus is looking for you," he responded, but Heiwa had had enough of listening to this group.
"Get out of here!" she shouted.
All three of the teenagers jumped, startled, and made a break for the entrance of the alley. The mother pygmy puma made a swipe at their legs as they passed but she quickly abandoned the attack in order to comfort her cub.
Heiwa watched as the larger cat sniffed around the still forms of her offspring, mewling pathetically as she did so. The still living cub huddled under her legs, shivering.
It was almost too much for Heiwa, who only realised she was crying when the first tear dislodged itself from her chin. Pikatti wrapped her arms around her sister and Heiwa leaned in, sobbing into Pikatti's shirt.
"We need to leave the city," Pikatti said. Her voice choked slightly and was muffled by Heiwa's hair.
"I know," Heiwa said through a sob. She pulled out of the hug and tried to wipe as much of the wetness away from her eyes with a grubby sleeve. Pikatti's own face was wet from crying, but it didn't matter.
In the alley, the pygmy puma looked at them with pleading eyes.
"Let's go back for Massak and Ko," Pikatti said. "Then we'll get out of here."
"Where will we go?" Heiwa asked.
"Anywhere the White Lotus isn't."