ANGST IN SPAAAAAAAACCEEEE (yes I'm taking this fic completely seriously)
Anyway, the story that Tavra references is the short story The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas, by Ursula K. Le Guin and to actually understand what she's saying I suggest you read the story before the rest of this fic. Also it's a hella good story. Much better than this fic.
There are eight of them, said the one survivor of the group that the Winter Court sent out to raid one of the human settlements on Sundara Seven.
Describe them.
Five are clearly human. Earth, Mind, Metal, Gravity, and Shadow. There are two who are not human, they are scaled and fanged like members of the Court, but smaller, and they have no wings. One of them can slow time, and the other- I am not sure.
What of the last?
He looks human, but he calls himself the Pan. We have never seen him smile, or laugh, or cry. His eyes are ancient. He controls a green energy that does not match anything that the Court has seen before.
The Winter King sat back, growling deep in his throat.
Could they help us? asked the Queen. Her many eyes flickered and blinked, and small silver wings stirred the air.
I do not understand, replied the raider.
Leave us, snarled the King. His wings rose into the air in a threatening display, and the raider bowed and ran out.
Many of the offworld settlements had equal populations of humans and serpentine, and Mesmer and Thorn went almost unnoticed. True, there were more humans than serpentine on Sundara Seven, but not by much.
Lloyd- who now called himself the Pan- rapidly established himself as the leader of this motley group of elemental masters. His memories from the distant past were sharpened by every day he spent with the Masters, and the ache in his heart got sharper, too. But he couldn't stop now, he had to keep going, and protect this new world from the huge, misshapen creatures called the Winter Court.
It wasn't hard to memorize the other members of the team. Mesmer, a Hypnobrai who has (more or less) control over time, Thorn, a Venomari who manipulates the dark energy of the universe, the master of Earth- who looks far too much like Cole, even after so many years they have the same broad chin and curly black hair- is named Brook, and the masters of Gravity and Mind (Dhamiri and Noah) used to be dating but now they hate each other, Tavra the master of Metal is the one with the glowing tatoos who smokes a green stuff called fairy dust all the time, and the master of Shadow is a grumpy young man with an eye patch. He is eerily pale, but his eyes are flinty black. (His name is Penumbra, or just Umbra.)
Lloyd-the-Pan had been the unofficial leader of the team for about a year when Mesmer pulled him aside.
"Who are you, really," she asked quietly. Her eyes shone bloodred in the light of the third moon, and the Pan was suddenly worried that she might hypnotize him. He looked away.
"Who are you?" Mesmer demanded. "You bear the power of creation."
"Energy," the Pan said defensively, but Mesmer shook her head, a forked tounge flickering angrily between her fangs.
"You are a child of the Creator," she whispered. "The humans, they forget where they came from, but the Serpentine remember. Serpentine live for a long, long time. Longer than humans."
"Not longer than me," the Pan said bitterly, and he began to talk. As he talked, the tears he'd been holding back for so long start to fall again, and Mesmer drew back in shock. He'd never laughed or cried, not in all the time he'd been on Sundara Seven, but now he is.
Shaking his head, the Pan said, "I thought it was gonna make everything better. Joining another team… but instead, it just hurts more."
Mesmer nodded slowly, her eyes sad. "You should tell the others," she said. And the Pan did.
When he finished his story, the other members of the team sat in silence.
"That's awful," said Dhamiri, levitating off the ground in distress. Brook rubbed their forehead and said, "You know, Pan, you could leave. If you don't want to be around us."
"It's fine," said the Pan.
"What's kept you going so long?" Umbra asked. His eyes are almost pleading, and the Pan remembered that Umbra doesn't like to talk about his past. He answered truthfully,
"It turned into- like, a game, during the hard times. When I was ready to die, I tried to see how long I could keep going. I'm playing the game now," he finished in a whisper.
Tavra lit a green fairy dust cigar and began to breathe sparkling smoke out of her nose. With the cigar still clamped between her teeth, she said, "That much bad stuff shouldn' happen ta anybody. It's like, if a good thing happens t' ya the world is gonna end. Reminds me of a book."
"A book?" asked the Pan, confused. Tavra nodded emphatically, then sneezed violently as another burst of glittering smoke came out of her nose.
"Didn' ya know I like ancient book stuff?" she asked, looking around the circle. Everyone shook their heads, looking at the other members of the team.
"Elaborate," Noah finally said. "It sounds fascinating."
"'Kay, so in this ancient text thing I read a couple'o years ago, there was this city, called Omalas. And like, there was a little kid that had to be starved, an' tortured and stuff, I think? But anyway, the lil' kid had all this bad stuff happen, so that everybody else i' the city wouldn't ever have bad stuff ta happen ta them."
"Oh."
The Pan stuck around until the Winter Court was defeated for good, but then one day Noah met the other elemental masters with a note in his hands.
Thorn, Mesmer, Brook, Noah, Tavra, Dhamiri:
We did it. We defeated the Winter Court. And, I'm sure you guys are going to have a lot more adventures, but I really can't stay to watch. Because I'm never going to get older, and you will. I'm really sorry that I couldn't stick around longer. Noah, you should try and take things a little less seriously. Umbra, remember that no matter what, there's always hope. Thorn, keep practicing that breath trick and I'm sure you'll be able to control the energy bursts in no time! Dhamiri, as long as you stay focused you're a great fighter! Brook and Mesmer, remember to take breaks- and I think you'll be able to do Spinjitzu pretty soon, as long as you keep practicing. Make sure the rest of the team practices, too. Tavra, you've been wonderful- I bet you're going to unlock your true potential any day now. Be sure you don't go overboard with the fairy dust, though.
-Lloyd "Pan" Garmadon