So some stuff went wrong with the first chapter, lol. I realized how horrible my spellcheck is, so I tried to fix it but like an idiot I deleted the chapter, added a new one, and just made that one chapter one, so I lost some views and stuff. But whatever. Just made me realize I could probably use a beta reader, so if you're interested, send me a PM! Enjoy the chap!
Light flooded on to her face as Sakarya rolled on her side. Her mind was foggy from the heavy sleep, but soon the memory of her dream came rushing back to her in full clarity. Adrenaline shot through her immediately and she opened her gold eyes, bolting out of bed. She didn't waste any time as she flew down the stairs and into the living room.
Her father sat on the couch watching the news when Sakarya blocked his view of the TV. She signed to him, Dad, I need to go to the temple. It's important.
Her father crossed his arms. "No Sakarya. Five firebenders got attacked last night and they don't know where the people who hurt them are. It's too dangerous."
But Dad, it's extremely important! She tried to defend herself.
Tazek stood up now. "No means no Sakarya! One of the kids is dead, and three more are in critical condition! Whatever you think is so important is not worth your safety. It's too dangerous for us out there," He continued, yelling at first but his voice quieted by the end. His gold eyes softened when he saw the look of hurt flash across his daughter's face.
The look was soon replaced by one of anger, and Sakarya stomped up the stairs. She stormed past her six year old brother Enzei in the hallway and slammed her door closed. She had to get to the temple!
An idea came to mind. Amara was fifteen years old like Sakarya, but the firebender had another friend with a driver's license- and a car. So she decided to text that friend.
Hey, I'm really sorry about texting you so early but I need a ride to the East Temple. It's immensely important. And I know about the firebenders who got attacked last night, but like I said, this is incredibly important. She pressed send, and waited for Ezuka to respond.
It came not ten seconds later. I can give you a lift. If you say it's important, I don't doubt it.
Sakarya sighed a breath of relief. Thank you so much. I'll text you my address, and I'll see you in 15 minutes?
Sounds like a plan.
In those fifteen minutes, Sakarya didn't waste a second. She dressed, threw her hair in its typical pony tail, grabbed her phone and extra money, and planned an escape from her room. She couldn't let her dad know she left. So she put on a playlist of TV shows on her computer, locked her door, and left her window blinds open. Then, she opened her window. Her bedroom was on the side of the house opposite to the living room, so hopefully her dad wouldn't see her climbing down the tree or getting into Ezuka's SUV.
Sakarya focused on the tree in front of her rather than the two story drop beneath her. Thankfully her window was large, so she didn't have to fit through a small square and the jump. She'd never snuck out before, so this was a first for her. She leaped the four feet to the large branch and struggled to grab a hold of it. She could feel the air get knocked out of her as the branch roughly collided with her stomach. Now she just climbed down the trunk, having done this part a million times. When she was little, she and her mother would always play outside around the house. One of her favorite things to do was climb the trees scattered across their small lot.
She could hear a car coming down the road now, and she cursed mentally when she landed roughly on her left foot. Ignoring the pain, she hurried to the now parked car, giving a small wave to Ezuka before she got in the backseat. She had brought her brother Eroh with her.
"Hey Sakarya, East Temple right?" Ezuka said, looking through her rear view mirror to see Sakura nod.
"Wait, what? I thought you were taking me to drive-thru for breakfast? What the hell is going on?" Eroh demanded, looking back at Sakarya with a glare before glaring at his sister.
Ezuka shrugged her shoulders. "That was a cover story. Sakarya needed an emergency ride, I need an alibi, and you're back up in case something goes wrong. We all have a job here, Eroh," The dark haired girl answered.
Eroh gave a grunt and crossed his arms, an angry pout on his face. Sakarya rolled her eyes. He could be such a baby.
The drive wasn't too long to the temple, but it was up in the woods. They lived in the suburbs of Republic City, so nothing was too long of a drive.
As soon as they parked, Sakarya hopped out of the car and started her way towards the temple. It was a bit up there, but nothing she couldn't hike up for a few minutes. Ezuka and surprisingly Eroh followed her without question.
Once they got to the top, they were all a bit out of breath but Sakarya continued on into the room. The temple was empty, thank goodness. Only the sounds of nature seemed to surround them. In the room were symbols carved into the wood, telling the journey of the statue. She recognized the tall statue immediately. Avatar Aang stood tall and proud, his wise, stone eyes so life-like.
She sat cross legged in front of the statue and prepared herself to meditate.
"She dragged us here for a stupid statue?" Eroh said, earning an elbow to the gut from his sister. It effectively shut him up.
Sakarya evened out her breathing, and closed her eyes softly.
She was in the temple still, but her body was bigger than normal. She could also feel the scratch of facial hair along her jawline. She was Avatar Aang once more. He was standing right outside the room she was currently meditating in, a pale girl to his right. It seemed like the temple was under construction, being built to be what it is. He turned to face her and Sakarya was shocked to see her sea foam green eyes. They were glazed over, as if she was blind, but the black haired girl was staring right at Aang.
"Oh come on twinkle toes, it's not that bad," The girl- no, young woman- teased Aang.
He shrugged. "It's just weird having a shrine for me."
The woman put her hands behind her head and looked back at the temple. "It was just Zuko's weird kinda royal gift to you. I mean, he is a Fire Lord. Makes sense he goes out of the way to give you a grand ol' present for the new city. The future people need to know who made their home anyway."
Aang made a face. "I guess. I'm just glad the real construction is over. It was so loud with all the rock splitting," He said.
"Eh, not totally. But whatever. I'll leave you to your meditating thing," She said, leaving Aang as she began down the steps. "Later air head."
Aang laughed. "Bye Toph."
The Avatar went into the room, his statue not their yet and the carvings only half way finished. He placed his hand softly on the wood, feeling the carvings as he moved his hand gently over them.
Suddenly, Sakarya was pushed out of Aang's body, though she was still with him in the room. She looked around, and took a fearful step back when she saw Avatar Aang's spirit standing before her. He was tall, his beard gray and wrinkles around his eyes as though he smiled much in his life, but also on his forehead, like he had a lot of stress in life. Her mind rushed through different things she should do before she quickly decided to bow, albeit it was quite an awkward bow.
Avatar Aang chuckled. "Hello, Sakarya. I promise you, this is not a hallucination."
"Then what's going on?" Sakarya asked, when her hands flew to cover her mouth. She had just spoken for the first time in her life. Her voice was soft and crackly, and her words came across as garbled, like a toddler was speaking. It sounded more like 'them wutz boin on?'. The Avatar gave her a soft, knowing look.
"We are technically in the spirit world here, as it is my memory, and your soul is quite a loud one, so it is possible for you to speak here. I'm afraid this is the only way I could communicate with you, bringing you to the places where my memories were made, and I'm sorry it's taken me this long to get a hold of you," He explained.
Sakarya tried to think of her words before she tried to speak again. The consonants came cross odd, but she managed to say, "Why is it me whose here?"
Avatar Aang seemed like he was going to answer, but his head snapped to something behind her. His eyes widened in what seemed akin to fear. "We don't have any time, they're here," He said, rushing to Sakarya. He placed his hands on her shoulders. "I will try to help you the best I can, but it is still difficult to connect to you."
"What?! Wait-!" Sakarya was cut off.
She was shoved back into her body, and the scene around her was the opposite of what she thought she would see. Eroh and Ezuka were standing with their back towards her, fighting off three men. They were protecting her, she realized.
The men wore old fashioned clothing, of which a peasant would have worn during the war. But the weirdest thing about them were their eyes. They were a glowing black, with no white. They had small red pupils, and their skin was glowing.
Everyone was caught up in the fight they didn't notice Sakarya standing. She felt no fear as she looked at these three sharp-fanged men. Instead, she could feel Avatar Aang in the back of her mind as she calmly walked towards them.
Now they noticed her, but they were too late, she had already started attacking them. Her light fire whipped around them, stronger than she'd ever felt it be before, but she was surprised at the strength in which they fought back. One was sending fire, but the other two were sending earth at them, and making the ground shake. Ezuka and Eroh started fighting with renewed energy. The temple was on fire, the wood crackling as the flames covered them. Smoke quickly started filling the room.
"We need to get out of here!" Eroh yelled, grabbing his sister. He threw a fireball at the closest attacker before grabbing Sakarya by the back of her shirt. She easily walked backwards, still sending whips of fire after the three men. As soon as they were out of the room, the presence of Avatar Aang disappeared from her mind and her bending flickered. It was back to its normal strength, but the three men were just getting stronger.
She turned and started running, the other two following her. She went down the hill next to the stairs and tried to not trip as she ran down. Her left ankle was hurting badly because of it, but she didn't slow down. The car was in sight, and they needed to get out of there.
Ezuka went past her brother and Sakarya, and went to the driver's door, but she stopped when she saw something. "All of the tires are slashed!" She yelled as the other two made it to the car.
"What?!" Eroh yelled, looking back and seeing the three men running down towards them.
"Run!" Ezuka yelled, taking off into the forest. Eroh and Sakarya went to the forest, and Sakarya threw flames at the three men, it landed in the grass and set it ablaze, forcing the men to stop and jump over it.
They seemed to run for hours, and they didn't let up. Only when Sakarya tripped did they stop. Ezuka helped her back on to her feet, but she was decided to just sit down. Eroh took a seat on a trunk next to her, just as breathless. The silence lasted a few minutes as they each listened in to see if they could hear anyone following them.
"What were those things?" Eroh asked, his voice quiet.
Sakarya put her head into her hands. She had no idea. Tears started falling as the adrenaline started leaving her. She took her phone out of her pocket, sniffling as she did so. She had just nearly died, and she had put Eroh and Ezuka in danger as well.
She typed in to her note pad app, giving Ezuka instructions. 'Call the police, we're lost and those things might still be out here.'
Sakarya handed her phone to Ezuka, who read the message and used Sakarya's phone to get a hold of the cops.
"Hi, we were just a-attacked at the East Temple," Ezuka spoke into the phone, her voice shaking. Eroh put his hand on to Sakarya's right shoulder when he saw her start crying again.
"There's three of us, and th-there were three men," She continued. She nodded. "Yes, we're firebenders."
"We're in the woods right now, and we don't know where we are. We just ran," Ezuka said.
"M-my name's Ezuka Mizok, my brother is Eroh Mizok, and we're with Sakarya Virra... o-okay," Ezuka said, pulling the phone away from her ear. She pressed a button and now the emergency operator was on speaker.
"Can you all hear me?" The operator asked.
"Yeah," Eroh responded, standing up and taking his hand off of Sakarya. She stood up as well, wiping her tears away.
A few seconds of silence. "Okay, my name is Mino. I'm going to guide you out of the forest. I've got the phone you're using on GPS, so just listen to me, alright?" Verbal answers saying okay.
Mino directed them south, until they found a creek. They followed that to the west. She said it would be about a ten minute walk, and police and ambulances were waiting for them at the edge of the forest. They were safe. Now the cops saw them. The next few minutes were a rush. Firefighters came tot he three teens, wrapping them in shock blankets and leading them to the road. Flashing red and blue lights were everywhere. Police everywhere. News reporters everywhere. Smoke in the distance that Sakarya could only guess was the temple. The shouts filled her senses, and the police dogs were barking, begging to be let go and hunt down what had terrorized the three firebenders. Cops were out in the woods now. They were staying away from Sakarya and Eroh, who were staring blankly at the ground. Ezuka was explaining what had happened, still in her shock blanket.
An arm went around Sakarya's shoulders and she saw Eroh give her a grim look. Tears started coming once more, and she leaned into the firebender. He put his head on hers and they sat there in silence. Sakarya was tired of crying, and she felt like such a baby, but she knew she had almost killed herself and her teammates.
They sat there for a few minutes before Sakarya heard a familiar voice. Her heart filled with relief and dread at the same time.
Her father spotted her immediately, going under the police tape and Sakarya dropped her blanket and ran into her father's arms. He hugged her tightly, and she could feel his rapid heartbeat in his chest.
"Don't ever do that again my little seal-otter, do you understand me?" He said, his voice uneven as he called Sakarya her childhood nickname. She sniffled and nodded quickly, still not letting her father go.
"Excuse me, sir, but we need to take your daughter to the station," A police officer interrupted. Sakarya let her father out of her arms and she felt Eroh come to her side.
"But it's not her fault this happened," The teen said, and it felt like a stab in her back as he said it. Yes, she ahd caused this. IT was her and her stupid dream that had made them almost die.
The police officer kept his gentle tone. "I'm sure it's not her fault, but all three of you need to go to the station. We need to get all the reports in."
Sakarya nodded, understanding the cop. This was just his job, and he was doing it the best he could.
The ride through downtown was a quiet, somber one. Eroh, Ezuka, and Sakarya shared the backseat as two police officers sat up front. The driver was the one who had told her she needed to go the station, and she didn't recognize the other one.
The firebender gulped when they drove past the front of it. The department was huge, almost castle-like. It was daunting to even the most formidable criminal, and it made the young teen want to turn tail and bolt. But she didn't. She needed to take the blame for what had happened. And she would do so without her hypothetical tail between her legs.
A little while later, the three of them were separated, each in an interrogation room. Sakarya sat at the table, and though she wasn't hand cuffed, she knew was being watch carefully through the two way mirror. The other two were being questioned first, and then it would be her turn.
Two men and a woman came into the room. Sakarya felt the panic in her chest rise when she saw the woman was Tarri Han, the new chief of police after Toph Bei Fong's daughter had retired. Sakarya tried to swallow it down, but was failing miserably.
Chief Han sat in the chair across from Sakarya, and the firebender tried to at least act like she wasn't go to die by meeting her eye to eye. The woman's face was stern, and so un-motherly it sent a chill down the teen's spine.
"Hello, Ms. Virra. I'm Chief of Police Tarri Han, but you can just call me Chief Han. I'm joined by Officer Lihing, and Officer Li. Officer Li will be translating your sign language for us today," She said, her voice just as cold as her expression. At least the other two officers, Lihing and Li, were giving her small smiles as greeting.
"Now, your friends tell me you're the one who wanted to go to the temple under the reason that 'it was an emergency', but that you had nothing to do with the attackers being there," Chief Han said, and Sakarya nodded. "Can you tell me what your emergency was, exactly?" The chief asked her.
Sakarya had already prepared for this. She knew she was going to be asked about her reasoning. She wasn't stupid. In the end, after about an hour of diligent thought, the girl decided the truth would be the best course. She didn't mess with police. She wasn't brave in the first place, and when faced with serious repercussions, she'd rather not bait the shark.
I had a vision of the Avatar, she signed. Officer Li relayed this. The chief's eyebrows shot up.
"The missing Avatar?" She asked.
Sakarya shook her head. No, Avatar Aang.
"So you decided to go to his statue?" Chief Han said, to which Sakarya nodded her head yes. "What were you trying to do?"
I'm not sure. I guess just make sure the vision wasn't just a detailed dream.
"And was it?"
No, it was not a detailed dream.
"Your friends say that you meditated in front of Avatar Aang's statue, and when you seemed to reach the true meditation point, your eyes began to glow a light blue. What did you see?"
Sakarya was shocked at this information, and took a few moments to reply. I didn't know about my eyes. But I was in Avatar Aang's body, talking to Toph Bei Fong while the temple was under construction. When Bei Fong left, and Avatar Aang went inside to meditate, I was pulled out of his mind and my spirit stayed in the room with him. Avatar Aang's spirit appeared to me and told me he had been trying to reach me.
Chief Han listened closely as Officer Li retold what she said. "Why was he trying to reach you?" She questioned.
I don't know, just that he'd been trying, and it had been difficult. He told me 'they're here', and I was in my body again, and these three guys were there attacking us.
Chief Han immediately stood up, talking quietly to Officer Li. She could barely overhear the words, "Call Master Rohan." Her eyes widened. They didn't mean who she thought they meant, did they?
Oh but they did. Not even an hour later, Sakarya was sitting across from Master Rohan. She was now in metal cuffs, allowing her just barely able to use sign language. Officer Li and Chief Han were in with them as well.
She felt uncomfortable as the man with the blue arrow tattoos studied her silently. He looked like a nice man, in his mid to late forties, and he was clean shaven unlike his father and grandfather had been at his age. She could see the likeness between him and his grandfather despite his asparagus green eyes.
"Ah, I have not introduced myself yet. I'm Rohan, and you, are Sakarya, yes?" He asked, and she nodded. She found it easier to look him in the eyes compared to Chief Han. "You are claiming to have visions of my grandfather, Avatar Aang. I'm here to see if you're telling the truth. Now, the vision you had at the temple took place when it was under construction, and Avatar Aang and Toph Bei Fong were talking, right?" Another nod. "What were they talking about?" He asked her.
They were talking about the temple. Avatar Aang found it weird to have a shrine for him, and Bei Fong said it was just Fire Lord Zuko's way of congratulating Aang on the city. She answered. She hadn't known Fire Lord Zuko gave the temple as a gift for Avatar Aang, but it made sense. She supposed it was just something she zoned out for in history class.
She must have said something important, because Master Rohan looked at Chief Han and gave a sharp nod. He turned back to the firebender, a large smile on his face. Sakarya leaned back in her seat, worrying about the airbender's next words.
"Sakarya Virra, we have reason to believe you are the next Avatar."
Sakarya promptly laughed, although it was silent with the lack of a working voice box. The guy was insane! The Avatar is supposed to have been born an earthbender, didn't he know that?
But when Sakarya looked at his green eyes after she was done laughing, she realized something. Yes, he did know. And it didn't matter. Because she might be the Avatar.
Dun dun dun! And the plot truly kicks off! I really tried to make this chapter longer for you guys, so I took a lot of what I was going to put in next chapter into this one. I'm not sure how long this story will be, but I will be adding a couple chapters together to make them longer. I just hope I wasn't jumping around too much to make sense.
ALSO, if anyone would like to be a beta reader, I'd seriously appreciate it! Just give me a PM :)
Leave a review if you want! :3