"Starr, wake up!"

All of my aches and pains are gone, I feel completely healed and at peace. Except for the bony finger poking my shoulder, that I could do without. I sigh and crack open my eye.

"Grandma?" I sit up way too fast and see spot. "You're supposed to be dead!"

Grandma huffs and straightens. "And you're supposed to be back in New York City with your friends by a pool, no?"

I look around, but can't see anything. We're standing in a white, misty plane, with streaks of purple and silver crisscrossing at random places. Grandma starts walking away, so I scramble up and follow her.

"Grandma, what's going on?"

"You have changed, Starr, and you have brought about change. And for what? To save what was important to you."

"What are you talking about?" Grandma did go a bit senile in her old age.

She only smiles. "I'm talking about you breaking the cycle, child. When the Spirits called you back, you refused. You used all your power to return to Avatar Aang's time, and may I say, you have more power than any other Time bender I've ever seen."

"I thought there was only one Time bender?"

"When you die, you will meet the rest and learn their stories. But now, we walk." She gestured to the stone path under our feet that hadn't been there before.

"What do you mean broke the cycle? And where's mom? She's been the one contacting me."

My grandmother only waves a hand through the pressing white mist, leaving flowers blooming in her wake.

"Your mother has changed, Starr, I believe for the worse," grandma sighs. "Something so shocking and heart-breaking has happened to her that she refused to go on. She's locked herself in a Time before Time benders, so that none of us can contact her…but I believe you can."

"The prophecy," I whisper, horrorstruck. Had I caused my own mother to go insane?

"But let us not worry ourselves with that right now. I'm here to tell you the consequences of your actions today.

"When you were being pulled back to your present day, you unleashed a display of Time bending never before seen. All time benders before you simply accepted their fate, did their duty, and returned to their homes none the wiser. But you were different.

"You developed an anchor to the Time period of the Avatar Aang. It is what allowed you to remain connected to that time, though the Spirits tried to wipe away your memories. Your mind would not release this memory, which lessened the Spirit's hold on you. This, combined with all of your immense raw power is what returned you to Avatar Aang's time."

"Anchor?" I'm confused. When she said anchor, I thought of old pirate movies I used to watch with my dad, before he went completely off the deep end.

Grandma smiles. "can you think of nothing that helped you to connect with the past?"

I think back through the other white mist, the one with scenes of the past flashing by as I felt my memory being erased. Zuko's face springs into my mind, and my grandma smiles again.

"I believe he is your anchor," she says, gesturing to the center of the garden she had been creating as we walked. There, I see two statues. One is of me, the other is Zuko.

"What does an anchor have to do with anything?" I ask. "And how is the cycle broken?"

"No other Time bender before you had an anchor to attach her to the past. You do. This is why you were able to draw yourself back. Because you did not return to your own time, the cycle is broken. Do you see what I'm saying, child?" I nod. "And so, you are the last Time bender, and the prophecy is half complete."

"Wait, so I am the child of the prophecy?" Grandma nods. "So I'm going to destroy the world? I'm going to—"

"—to bring you anchor with you wherever you may travel," Grandma interrupts. "That is how boats sail, correct? They travel with their anchor."

"Great, so now I'm a boat," I grumble.

"It was only a metaphor, dear," my grandmother lays a hand on my shoulder. "You have broken the cycle, and you are the child of the prophecy, but prophecies can be wrong. I don't believe for a minute that you will destroy the world, but perhaps we are interpreting it wrong. You know, the events of most fortunes is only clear after the events have already passed.

"And now I must tell you what is going to happen to the Avatar's link to the Time bender. Since you broke the cycle, you must teach the next Avatars time bending. To do this, the Spirits will pull you back when the Avatar is ready. However, since the cycle is broken, you will decide when you are ready to go back."

I stop. "But, Grandma, won't I die before I can teach all the Avatars?"

"Nonsense, child, how would the Avatar learn Time bending if you were dead? No, you will become immortal, as will your anchor. You can use your bending to age your appearance in the past, but in your present you will age naturally. You will probably be pulled back so much so that your flow of life in your own time will be choppy and difficult to keep track of, but I think you can do it." We've reached the edge of the garden. "Starr, I know you can do this. You must. But I think that if you weren't capable of this, the Spirits wouldn't have given you such power to overcome them."

I give her a hug. "Thank you, Grandma."

"Now, if you don't mind, I do believe there is someone waiting for you in the past," my grandmother stands back to look at me.

She begins to fade away.

"You're so beautiful, it's no wonder you found an anchor."

Wait, she's not fading away, I am. I'm being pulled back to Zuko and my friends.

"Be safe, be well, and be careful! Don't tell too many people of the Time bender, or there will be dire consequences."

It's getting difficult to hear her words. There's so many more questions I have! My mind is spinning so much and she's so faded that I almost miss my Grandma's last words to me.

"But Starr, I know you can do this."