Oh man, has it been a while. I promised a continuation last year and...well, I finally got around to it. This extra chapter should cover all of Book 2 and the start of Book 3. Enjoy, and tell me what you thought of it when you're done! I would love love love some feedback!

Disclaimer: Sage is mine. Rai is mine. Mikah is mine. The universe they reside in, however is not.

Book 1 ¼: Between the Earth and Sky

Chapter 8: Lost to Time

Earth. Fire. Air. Water. 70 years ago, my grandfather, Avatar Aang, master of all four elements, ended the 100-year war against the Fire Nation. With help from Firelord Zuko he created Republic City, my home. According to my father, Republic City is at war. Amon, the Equalists, and the non-benders of our city have begun a rebellion against all benders. They think we have repressed them because of their inability to bend an element.

Avatar Aang has long since passed, but the new Avatar is here—Korra. She will find a way to bring light to the darkness. She has to.

…

He reminded Jinora a little too much of Skoochy. In the way he walked, the way he talked, the way he could charm the pants off of anybody, especially her. It made her ache a little bit inside to see him, but at the same time he made her head buzz, something Skoochy had never done to her.

It's not like they had ever actually dated or anything. Jinora and Skoochy…they were too young, too inexperienced. And now it was too late.

Jinora shivered, and attempted to even out her breathing. Calm down, she repeated over and over in her mind as her chest lifted and fell in an erratic pattern, the sound of her increasing hysteria filling the room. Oh, spirits.

Skoochy.

All of a sudden, guilt flooded through the young airbender's system, sending pain spiraling down her spine all the way to her toes, making her curl up around herself and bite down the screams working up her chest. Sweat beaded her forehead, making her room on the airship incredibly small and thick with panic. The airbender shot out of bed, and tore from the room.

She felt the weight of more than just tears in her once-young eyes as she haphazardly made her way through the halls of the ship, but searching for what, her body would not tell her mind. The young girl found herself in the common room that led to the outside training area. The room was warm with flickering candles, their aroma instantly hitting Jinora with a wave of homesickness. She wrapped her hands around her waist and dropped to her knees in the doorway, heat prickling her eyes.

Although she tried, holding them in proved in vain. Her shoulders began to shake. How dumb could she have been to think that she could work through this, ignore the pain of loss?

"Jinora?" It was Korra. She was sitting on one of the couches in the room, an arm around her companion, their legs covered in a thick white blanket. The Avatar airbended herself to a standing position, and made her way to the young spirit guide.

"Sweetie, what's wrong?" her companion asked, brow knotted in worry. Jinora felt Korra's callused hand making soothing circles across her back, comforting her. The girl let out a sob, and buried her head into the Avatar's chest, not wanting anyone to witness the pain she had been trying so hard to hide.

"It's okay, sweetie. I know. Just let it out. I'll be sure to beat up whoever made you cry." She murmured, her arms wrapped protectively around the dear airbender, once so strong, now feeling so frail. Sometimes, Korra forgot that she was only eleven. The girl shook harder. "Come on, come sit on the couch with us. You just let it all out, Jinora. We're here for you." She looked over at the figure still at the couch. "Asami, can you make us some tea?"

…

The young girl sat with Asami, her secret keeper, on one side, and the Avatar on the other. All three sat with hot teacups in their hands and a blanket over their legs. Jinora's tears had subsided, but the puffy eyes and hiccupping remained. She shivered, finally acknowledging the absence of the world that surrounded her. Never had Jinora felt as small as she did now.

And looking at her, both older girls could see it. When had the airbender grown so old? It wasn't the Spirit World that had damaged her aura, making her eyes older than the rest of her body. It was something even Korra couldn't have prevented.

"So what happened?" Asami asked. Her voice was low and coaxing, her green eyes bright with sincerity. One hand reached over and took Jinora's in hers, the gesture solid and warm.

"I…" The word hadn't left her mouth. The girl swallowed. Just thinking about the memories soaked her soul in dread and her body in agony. What would happen when she told another person, when she took the words and made them tangible? But there was something, deep inside her; a voice deeply engrained in her mind. It told her with a grin to Do it, Genie.

So she did.

…

She remembered being in the Fog of Lost Souls. It had filled her body, her soul, drenched her to the bone with regret and fear. Jinora remembered feeling so alone, how the fog trapped her in her worst memory. Her worst memories. In a few short years, she had managed to collect a number of them.

The first was of a dream she had had, long ago, of dark spirits and battles yet to come, of hands reaching for her and dragging her away. She had been just a baby when someone had tried to kidnap the first female airbender born in over a century. Jinora couldn't remember what he looked like, only what his rough, cut hands felt like as he tried to steal her away.

It was painful, but it had not broken her. So the Fog of Lost Souls found another memory to exploit.

It chose her time being an Equalist prisoner. The abuse she had to face, the promises made and broken. A boy she trusted that had left her behind. But Jinora had understood why he'd left her. And in what felt like another lifetime, she had forgiven him. It was painful to relive, over and over and over again, but she had not cracked. So the Fog tried again.

And this time, without needing to use her memories against her, it won.

She had been wandering for Spirits know how long when she found a familiar face. He looked about Meelo's age, but Jinora knew better. "Rai!" she had cried, hope flooding her heart at the sight of a familiar face.

He turned to face her. "Who are you? What do you want?" He demanded, cold as steel. With his youthful face, the deep vocal infliction seemed almost ironic.

"Don't you remember me, Rai?"

The young boy looked her up and down. "I don't know anything. I didn't do anything wrong. You can't take me away from my family."

"You don't remember anything, do you?" Jinora had looked away sadly, and for a moment, the tears seemed to clear away the fog that had infested her mind. "Rai, I'm a friend of Skoochy's. I was your friend once, too."

"Yeah?" The boy sneered. "And then what happened?"

She just stared at him, curiosity lining her eyes. "You were hurt. You fell into a coma. Skoochy was—we were all—devastated. Don't you remember any of this?"

And slowly, she watched as his face drained of color, and the boy fell to his knees. Jinora looked at him, and she could feel what he felt. She could see what he saw. She felt the fight, the explosion, the ground as he crumpled onto it. She felt his soul become separated from his body as Mikah shadow-jumped, discarding his essence in the spirit world and returning his empty body to the real one.

"I remember…pain." Rai murmured. "So much pain. And shouting. And Mikah. And then…it felt as if someone had ripped me from my body, like stuck a cold hand in my chest and pulled me right out. And then there was no more pain." He lifted his eyes to search hers, and as soon as he did, he gasped and fell away from her.

Jinora dropped to his level, and knew that he knew. "They waited for six months, Rai. But the healers couldn't keep your body alive any longer. They said it wasn't worth it."

"No." He began to shake his head.

"Your body was falling apart without your soul to keep it together."

"You're lying." Rai's eyes began to glisten. "Stop lying."

"I wish I could, Rai. I really, really do." She reached forward to take his hand, but she only felt empty air. "And it killed them, Skoochy, Mikah, Sage, all of them. It really did, letting you go. They loved you." Her words began to hitch.

"Stop LYING!" The boy shouted, and squeezed his eyes shut, as if doing so would stop him from seeing the truth. Instead, he found hot, thick tears streaming down his face.

"Rai, I was at the funeral. They buried you." Jinora sobbed.

And the boy, once so young, so alive and filled to the brim with wit and potential, a boy that survived an Equalist attack and the merciless streets of Republic City, who had people who cared about him and a family to depend on and a whole life to live, a boy who had never fallen in love, let out a cry that echoed over the Spirit World and utterly broke Jinora's heart. Then, the Fog of Lost Souls thickened between them, and Rai was truly lost forever.

…

"That poor kid…" Asami couldn't bear to look at the airbender.

However, Korra just seemed intrigued. "And then what happened?"

Jinora set her now-cold tea down. "I had to tell Skoochy."

…

Skoochy had moved back to Republic City as soon as the funeral was over. He couldn't live with the reminder that his right hand man, his best friend, was gone, and he definitely couldn't live in the North Pole any longer. Not with the therapists Mikah's father had paid to come and talk to him, not with the heavy coats and the constantly plunging temperatures, and definitely not with Sage and Mikah serving as a reminder of what they used to have. The girls called him a coward, and they were right. But that couldn't stop him.

So Mikah spirit-ran him to the City and made him promise to write. She hadn't heard from him since. Jinora knew; she and Sage exchanged letters whenever they could.

After Harmonic Convergence, the airbender's first and only mission had been to find Skoochy. There were vines growing from cracks in streets and in walls, panicking citizens, new spirits that could turn hostile at the drop of a pin; it was dangerous, even for the experienced street urchin.

She searched all their old hangout spots, the richer districts of Republic City, the Firelord Zuko statue, their park, to no avail. Skoochy was nowhere to be found, and no one had seen him since Harmonic Convergence.

Could he be dead as well? There were many that perished during the battle, but Jinora had checked the list over and over again. There was no one named Skoochy, no street urchin bodies reported. That meant he had to be alive, and living somewhere. But where?

Jinora found herself wandering into the vine-infested pro-bending arena. She floated lightly over the larger vines, and made her way towards the stands. The arena looked so dull, so ancient without people in it. The steps were covered in dust. Most of the stands were taken by the plants. The water lapped lazily against the walls below. It was peaceful here. Odd, for a place that she used to watch from across the bay as it filled with fans and shone bright, inviting lights off the rooftop. It used to buzz with life and energy. Now it seemed lost to time.

Jinora opened her glider with a fwip, and flew out to the playing field, where a small dragonfly bunny was jumping around, inspecting its new home. "Hello, friend," the girl smiled as she touched down lightly, kicking up a little bit of dust as she did so. "Have you seen anyone around here recently? A young boy, about ye high, with a hat and a sarcastic disposition?"

"I can't be that short." A familiar voice echoed from somewhere behind her, and the sound of it made something jump inside and made her feel as if everything was okay again. Jinora turned and shot herself towards him, brown eyes fresh with tears. Skoochy had appeared out of nowhere. She bended into him and wrapped her arms around Skoochy's shoulders, her cheek pressed up against his. He was real and he was alive and he was here.

"Oh, thank the Spirits you're okay!" And even though she had promised herself not to do so in front of him, Jinora began to cry.

…

Skoochy sat down next to her, and together they dangled their feet off the edge of the arena. His hand found some way to touch hers, and although it made her heart jump, something in the back of her mind told her that it wasn't romantic. It couldn't be. The gesture was too needy, too intense. He needed to prove that she was there, that she was with him. He needed something to find comfort in.

The pain. It emanated from him in spiritual waves that were so raw it made Jinora feel a little sick. His heartache could probably never be healed, and it was slowly eating at his very soul.

"I found Rai while I was in the Spirit World." She glanced over at Skoochy, who had perked up at the sound of the boy's name.

"You did? How?" The demand in his voice made Jinora feel suddenly so small.

"I was in the Fog of Lost Souls, the Spirit prison. He said…" She stopped. How could she tell Skoochy that it was because of Mikah's ability they lost the boy forever? Shadow-running is dangerous when done with an injury. If the runner isn't careful, the soul could be leached out of the cut, and become separated from its vessel. Skoochy was always one for keeping grudges. How could Jinora turn him against his own family?

"He said what? What did he say?" Skoochy leaned forward, anticipation replacing the light in his eyes she thought had been lost forever.

Jinora had never lied to Skoochy before. She'd never told a lie this big before, but now she would have to. For everyone's sake.

"It took him a while to remember me, but when he did…he told me to tell you that…he misses you. And he loves all of you, but…his body was weak. He knew it. And he said what you had a tough choice, but that it was okay. It was a hard decision, but he would've done the same thing. Now, he just wants you all to live together. For him. Or he's going to kick all your butts when you get to the Spirit World." Jinora added the last part in haste as soon as she realized that nothing she just said sounded like something Rai would say. She glanced over hopefully.

Skoochy smiled, tears in his eyes. "I'm glad he's okay." He whispered so softly that it was hard to believe it had come out of him, out of her rock.

She squeezed his hand. "Me too."

He leaned forward and pressed a kiss to her forehead, light as a spring breeze and meaning everything in the world to her. "Thank you."

The spiritual waves of what she thought were heartache stopped. She opened her eyes, and Skoochy, who had been so real and warm beside her, flickered like a light before her and disappeared.

…

"I don't understand how he could've been a spirit…he looked so real. He felt so real." Jinora felt warm tears slinking down her cheeks. She had cried so much—too much—in the past few weeks. When was it going to end?

Korra cocked her head. "Did you call his spirit to you? Maybe it was a projection, a—"

"No." The girl stopped her. "I searched the pro-bending arena after he disappeared, and then I found him."

…

He was in Mako and Bolin's apartment over the arena. It was infested with vines, and the roof had collapsed in under the weight. The room was thick with dust. There was a pile of rubble in the far side of the room, and sticking out from under it, almost out of sight, was an outstretched hand that Jinora had once held, once felt as it enveloped her in a hug, a hand that had protected her, had caressed her cheek as he had presented her with her first kiss at the turn of the year.

Anger spiked her pumping heart. She bended the rubble off of his bruised and beaten body, tears hot against her eyelids, thoughts pounding in her ears. It wasn't him. It couldn't be. He was there, he was real, he was…she thought he had been sending off waves of heartache. She had been wrong. No. No!

It was him. Jinora had to get him out from under all that destruction. She scrambled to shovel the rubble with her hands, cutting herself in multiple places as she did so. As soon as she could see him, exposed and bloody, her hands fell against her body, suddenly as lifeless as he. Her knees weakened at the sight of Skoochy.

He had been under the cave-in ever since Harmonic Convergence, but his body looked as if he had only passed a few minutes ago. How was that possible, unless…?

Unless he had been alive all that time, pain wracking his every moment, stone cracking open his vessel and crushing the soul inside. Unless he had managed to endure the pain for as long as he could, and died just minutes before Jinora had entered the pro-bending arena. He had been alone. He had died alone.

"Oh, Skoochy," the girl murmured, and swept his hair from his face, now at peace with the world. He had been too young. Rai had been too young. She was too young. They were all too young to be fighting battles so ancient in nature. She pressed a kiss to his forehead, as he had done mere minutes ago. "I'm so sorry."

And as the world continued around her, she cried out in pure agony and heartbreak for the first time, and at that one moment, just for a moment, all of time stopped for the young airbender girl that had lost her first love.

…

"I couldn't carry him back to the air temple. I tried, but I just couldn't. So I…I had to leave him there."

"Why did you get anyone to help you?" Asami asked. "You could've called me, or Mako, or Bolin. We would've been able to help."

"It was something I wanted to on my own. I came back that night with a shroud I had made and burned him outside of the pro-bending arena." The corners of Jinora's mouth lifted slightly as she remembered the shroud. "Besides, I wasn't alone." All the spirits had come that night, along with Mikah and Sage, to say farewell. Some told Jinora of how they had tried to help him, but they couldn't do anything for the young boy. She had thanked them, and together, Jinora, Mikah, Sage and the spirits keened for all they had lost that day. The girls were the only ones left of Skoochy's family. They had to protect each other now.

Mikah had called him a coward as his body burned, her voice bitter and filled with tears.

"That was very sweet of you, Jinora. I know he deserved a farewell such as that. But next time, call one of us, okay? It doesn't look very good when an eleven-year-old is found burning a body in the middle of the night." Asami squeezed her hand.

The girl smiled. "Okay."

"But what about Kai? We all know you have a thing for him." Korra winked, making Jinora blush.

"I kind of do have a thing for him. Kai reminds me of Skoochy. So whenever I see Kai, I must subconsciously think of him. And when he was captured the Earth Queen—" Jinora shuddered. "It felt as if I had lost him all over again. I can't bear to lose another person, not after everything that's happened. I mean, I still feel terrible for projecting Skoochy onto Kai but at the same time…I don't know.

"When I looked at Skoochy, I felt as if I was coming home. When I see Kai, I feel adventurous and…pretty."

"Well, you're still young, Jinora. Skoochy and Kai are just two boys in a whole world of people. I suggest you keep an open mind." Asami reached forward and tapped the airbender's temple affectionately.

"Besides, I don't think Tenzin would approve if you were to start dating Kai, and personally, I don't think I would like it all too well, either. You're still young. Enjoy the freedom while you have it!" Korra grinned.

I'm still young. Jinora laughed. "Don't worry, Korra. I'm not quite ready to move on, anyway. I'm going to wait."

Korra mussed up the girl's hair. "Good girl. Now come on, it's getting late. And Asami and I still have some…talking to do. Do you want us to walk you back to your room?"

"No, I'm alright. I mean, I'll be alright." Jinora bended herself into standing, and made her way towards the doorframe. "Thanks, guys. For everything. See you in the morning!"

…

And in the morning, when she awoke, Jinora felt lighter than she had in weeks. There was a still an ache, and she feared there always would be, but that was okay. It reminded her of what used to be, and what could be, and what will be. It was going to be difficult, coming to terms with Skoochy's death; it was going to be even harder moving on. And it was going to take her a long time, but if she was lucky, and if Kai was patient, Jinora could see herself with him, somewhere in the future. Just not now. He was still young, she was still young, and she still had so many things to do before she even thought about settling down.

Korra was right—she had a whole life in front of her, which was a lot more than some people got. She was given life, and it was the one chance she'd get (as far as she knew). Jinora was going to do more than read about it; she was going to live it. And the thought of it made her feel stronger, inside and out, than she had in a long time.

She smiled as her eyes alighted onto of Skoochy's hat sitting on top her stack of books on the desk. Her life was never going to be the same. But everything was going to be okay, eventually.

She was sure of it.

DEATH. DEATH EVERYWHERE.

Tell me what you thought of everything! Did I explain things well enough? Did I make you cry? (please say I made you cry I love hearing that)

ALSO if I haven't explained things more I might come back and write more stuff about my fluff-turned-against little pairing :3

Thanks for reading! I really, truly appreciate the time it took to read this, and I appreciate you. Until next time! -The Agent