_Tara_

"Come on, come on!" I said as I struggled with the lock. I had tried to timebend it open several times, but that wasn't working at all, as some materials are resistant to Timebending unless the bender is an experienced one. The problem was that my aunts had locked me in the closet when they'd seen I was trying to run away. I slammed my body against the lock several times, trying to break open the door. Finally I slumped over and whimpered, listening to the muffled sounds of the screams outside my home. I looked around the closet for something to help me. There were traditional timebender clothes folded on shelves all around me, and the traditional timebender slippers lined up in various sizes along one wall, but there was nothing useful for breaking open the door.

I quickly pulled my pack off of my back and looked through everything I had inside it. There was nothing but some food and traditional timebender clothing, alongside my favorite treasures. I sighed and slumped against the wall as the screams from outside became distinctly louder. I knew that it wouldn't be long before they burned down my home, and I had all but given up hope when the lock snapped open. I hopped up as the door opened to reveal my five friends and my sister.

"Come on, we've gotta go!" my sister, Kari, said insistently.

"How?" I asked. She smiled at me.

"Time travel."

I opened my mouth to remind her and the others that it had never been done before, and was believed to be impossible, but then I simply shook my head and stepped out of the closet with my bag and without argument. Kyla, one of my friends, directed everyone to sit in a circle.

"Hold hands, everyone," Kyla directed, "Close your eyes. Imagine a later time where there are no cruel firebenders. Imagine us all being there. Convince the world, convince time, that it's true."

I opened my eyes as the door burst open. A firebender walked in and blasted fire at us, but the room was already looking different, it seemed like we were slowly teleporting someplace else. Regardless, even as our surroundings changed I heard Kyla cry out in pain. With a sudden jerk, I felt my hand separated from my sister's, and it was all I could do to hold on to Kyla's. My surroundings began to spin, and I began to get a headache in my temples.

Finally the spinning stopped and I was surrounded by nothingness. There was nothing in my sight, although I could feel Kyla's hand in mine. Her grip was slack. Worried, I tried to think of something else and I began to think of my aunts. Suddenly, rather than nothingness, I saw firebenders burning my aunts alive.

Horrified, I tried to scream and shut my eyes, but I could do neither, as though I was not watching from my own body. So I thought of something else, of the man who had caused this all; I thought of the Fire Lord. Suddenly I was seeing him instead. I saw him telling his children of a great plot to gain more land, as if it was a great thing, and I despised him. I watched him and his children.

I watched for days, for months, for years. I watched as his children grew older and with horror I realized that there was no end to it. I was doomed to watch whatever or whoever I thought of, perhaps forever. When I grew weary of watching others, I could not simply turn away and do something else; I was forced to watch.

I watched as Fire Lord after Fire Lord made horrible cruel choices, with rarely a peaceful time between them. I watched as the Fire Lords, for the sake of keeping up a good image, convinced the world that timebenders were only myths, and I watched as the world slowly began to believe them. By the time a few hundred years had gone by, no one even mentioned the mystical and fabled timebenders.

I watched for thousands of years, unable to stop watching and unable to die as I had been intended to long before. It was too much for a child to take, but it was no longer my decision. So I watched. I watched the recurring lifestyles of the Fire Lords as they made mistake after mistake.

All their lives occurred in much the same manner until nearly three thousand years later, three thousand years of nothing but observing that I had been forced to endure, when there was a coup and the Fire Lord was overthrown. I watched as the former Fire Lord fled and was forced to work as a farmer. But to my surprise, he and his family seemed to be kind people, if not a little rough around the edges and unused to hard work.

I began to develop a theory, and as I turned my never-ending gaze towards the new Fire Lord, I believed my suspicions were confirmed. I believed that whether or not someone was a good person, when given too much power, they would end up hungry for more. Those who did remain kind simply had a higher tolerance for power, but given the right amount, they, too, would become hungry for more. And so my view on one with power became similar to my view on an alcoholic.

Just under seven thousand years later, a foolish power-drunk Fire Lord, Sozin, used a comet to start a war, and every Fire Lord since him was as power-hungry as the last. The only person who I had hope for that was next in line was a certain Iroh, who, while a great leader in battle, was a kind man who I believed could handle the power without becoming mad.

But when he set off to take Ba Sing Se, things took a turn for the worse. His son died, and his brother tried to seize power for himself. As punishment for his actions he was sentenced to sacrifice his first-born son, a young boy named Zuko, and he intended to do it. I felt great sympathy for the boy, but it was not like I hadn't seen worse from the Fire Nation. But the boy's mother, eager to protect her son, killed the Fire Lord in order to make her cruel husband Fire Lord and to save her son's life. I watched the son, Zuko, trying to see if his life was worth all the trouble his father would undoubtedly cause, and despite believing he wasn't, I developed a liking for the boy.

I watched him until he was eight years old, when suddenly everything went black. I opened my eyes, gasping at the feeling of seeing through my own eyes, hearing through my own ears, and being in control of my own body. Suddenly I remembered Kyla's hand in mine, and I turned to express my relief at the wait finally being over, but instead I screamed in horror.

Much of Kyla's upper body was scorched and disfigured, and she was not breathing.

I gasped as I woke up from my nightmare, tears streaking from my eyes. I looked around, hoping no one had seen my moment of weakness, and I was relieved to see that everyone was sleeping. I wiped my eyes and then settled back into the saddle, doing my best to fall back asleep.

| .Press the pretty button!. |
V Good things will happen! V