Just in case some of you haven't realized I am in college now...yeah not fun. And there was the incident with Hurricane Sandy...more fun. I'm fine but I had lost power for about a week. So yeah chapters will be even slower than usual, just when you thought it couldn't get worse, and now I'm even more unsure that I'll continue the series. Other than the fact that I might not have time, you guys would have to wait so long to be able to read this. So I'm really wondering if it's worth it. I'm sure that I've lost many readers over the years so I'm just wondering if you guys would continue reading the second book if the chapters take such a long time to post.


"Rebecca," I heard Nyoko, Brianna, and Gin call out my name as Brianna shook me. I wasn't sure how long I had been out of it but when I finally came out of my shock I found myself back on land. I turned back the mirror; the water from the pond had reverted back to a pure blue color but the flowers had a disappeared long ago.

"What happened?" Brianna asked me as she helped me to my feet. "We saw a light flash then a fog suddenly appeared, but we didn't know what to do."

"We heard you scream," Nyoko told me "what did you see in there?" I took a deep breath and touched my neck. I could still feel her hands on me, her ice cold touch that could freeze my soul. I closed my eyes, which was a terrible move. I could still see the visions and felt like those eyes were still watching somewhere in the distance. Gin wrapped his tail around me, probably sensing my distress. It was comforting but not enough for me to calm down.

"Something I hope I never see again," I said with a shiver. I could tell they were all worried about me but that was the last thing on my mind. Right now the only thing I wanted was to get out of the Spirit World, even if it meant going back into a hundred year old war. "Come on we better go." We were about to leave when I heard Brianna gasp.

"What's going on?" she asked. I turned around and saw that her brace was giving out a blue aura. I felt for my neck and could feel a powerful force submerging. Then the oddest thing happened. Our jewelry reverted back into their charms and flew into the center of the pond. I felt naked with the necklace. It had been on me for so long it was like it had become a part of me. The charms circled around each other, each time getting closer to one another until they finally joined together to make a complete yin and yang circle. A blinding light flashed from them. With much effort I was able to make out a figure, probably a man, coming out from the light. Slowly the light started to fade until we were able to see the spirit clearly. Brianna and I were in shock when we saw that it was the same man from the vision months ago, the first Avatar. "No way," Brianna said amazed. While Brianna and I exchanged confused looks Gin and Nyoko lowered their heads, I'm guessing their way of bowing.

"Rebecca and Brianna," I heard a deep masculine voice come from his lips. "I have come to reveal to you a great power." Somehow I didn't like the sound of that. There was always a catch with great powers like sacrifice or danger.

"We're listening," I said just above a whisper. He nodded and directed his attention to Brianna. I had never seen her so startled.

"Brianna, you have already encountered this ability. The ability to combine with another soul." My eyes widened, I had forgotten the day she and Nyoko combined forces to take down Jet or maybe it was because I didn't want to remember. I'd never say it out loud but I was still pretty jealous of her. "The ability allows you and a spirit to combine in order to harness a great power. The power will vary on the spirit, and you can only combine with a spirit that you can connect with. Trying to fuse with a spirit that opposes you can be dangerous, even life threatening. But when preformed correctly one can harness great power."

"That sounds cool," Brianna admitted. I looked over at her with a raised eyebrow making her fling her arms up. "What? It does! So we can fuse with something like Heibai?"

"Yes well," the first Avatar said clearing his throat. "If the spirit resists you probably can't force them into it."

"Aw" Brianna shouted disappointed, "that sucks." I rolled my eyes but turned my attention back at the first Avatar. I noticed that he was beginning to disappear and the light from the charm was reappearing.

"I'm afraid my time is limited," he told us "I must go now."

"Wait before you disappear," I shouted out. "Tell us your name." There was a short silence making me feel a bit awkward. "Sorry but I want to know," I said a bit embarrassed. He gave me a small smile that made feel nostalgic. I felt something tugging at the back of my memory, as if I should know this man.

"Alright then I'll tell you" he said. There was a hint of sadness in his voice, more so than usual anyway. I had always thought he was a rather lonely soul but talking to him now made me think he was even lonelier than I thought. He still looked the same the day Brianna and I first came; his black and white cloak that covered his entire body and the hood that covered a majority of his face. I had the urge to go up and pull the hood back just so I could get a good look at his face. "I am Osamu, the first Avatar."

"Osamu," I whispered his name. I saw his smile seemed to brighten a bit when I spoke his name. I felt my mind being tugged again, whatever memory I had seemed to be important but I couldn't recall anything. I noticed he was starting to fade more growing more and more transparent. For some reason I felt like I needed to call out to him but my throat went dry when I tried to form my words. Just before he faded I saw a remaining flower float down into the water under him, a forget-me-not flower. I felt my head spin. It was as if my brain was overworking to try and find an answer. It didn't stop until I looked up at Osamu.

"Until next time," he said in a bit of a sad voice. I found myself staring up at him until my eyes couldn't handle the light. The charms slowly dimmed and reattached themselves to us. For a few seconds I felt light headed, it almost felt like I had woken up from a dream.

"Well that was unexpected," Brianna said and looked down at her charm.

"Yeah," I said and gently touched my charm.

"You two better get going," Gin told us as he and Nyoko transported back into their charms.

"You don't want to be stuck here now do you?" Nyoko said with a giggle.

"She's right. We better get going so that we beat Aang to his body. After all we can't go though him if he's not in that state."

"Oh right," Brianna said after recalling what I told her before. "We better run then." We wasted no time and managed to made it back to the place we had appeared at before. "How do we get back?" Brianna asked me as we stood under the gate not knowing what to do. I thought for a moment thinking back to the episode then looked over at the monkey meditating.

"Hey you," I called out to it "can you send us back to the mortal world?"

"Well what if I could," he asked me with one eye opened.

"Don't you want to help us?" Brianna asked naively.

"What would make me want to help you?" I crossed my arms and smirked at him.

"If you don't help we'll never get to leave, and if that happens we're going to have to do something to entertain ourselves for all eternity." From his facial expression I could tell he didn't like the idea of us staying. My bluff seemed to be working. "I've always wondered what it would be like to see our panther friend chase a monkey. She's rather energetic. I wonder how long it'd take her to get tired of playing tag with you." The mention of Nyoko caused the monkey to jump. And from the way Nyoko was crouching she didn't seem to mind the idea of playing with the spirit monkey.

"Alright I'll help," he said and waved his arms around. "Just keep that cat away from me!" I heard Brianna laugh from behind and I held up my hand which she high fived, or high pawed? The monkey looked displeased but he held out his hands and a white light zapped out of it and at us. I felt our body's being transported and fading. I closed my eyes and could feel myself being pulled out of this world. When the pulling stopped I opened my eyes and saw that were still in our spirit forms but were back in the hidden garden in the North Pole.

"Zuko must have gotten to Aang," Brianna said when she saw that we were at the oasis. We spotted Momo sleeping soundly in front of the pond where the koi fish were, still waiting for our return.

"Let's go" I said as Gin and Nyoko came out from the charms. We hopped onto them and flew off toward Aang's body. We followed the path toward we could sense a strong spiritual aura, no doubt it was coming from Aang. We found the cave where we guessed Zuko had taken Aang's body. Gin and Nyoko dived down and we phased though the rock formations. We quickly spotted Aang still in his glowing form. I let out a groan when I realized that Aang was lying on the ground with his arms and legs tied up. I knew it was going to be a bumpy ride when we got our solid figure back, so I got ready for the impact.

Gin and Nyoko flew straight toward Aang's body just barley hovering over the ground. I felt my body becoming solid just as we passed through him. The landing was rough like I expected. Nyoko tripped on a rock, causing her to topple over Gin, and sent Brianna and I flying to the ground.

"Ouch," I said and rubbed my right shoulder. It wasn't until I sat up did I realize that Zuko was standing right in front of me. "Umm long time no see?" I said after a short silence. Before he could have time to react, I saw a flash of light appeared behind me. I turned and saw that it came from Aang. I heard him gasp as he looked around at the unfamiliar area. He started struggling to try and break free from the ropes. He must have sensed our presences because he suddenly stopped squirming and sat himself up.

"Welcome back" Zuko said to him.

"Good to be back," he said and glared at him. He then took a deep breath and shot an air current from his mouth at Zuko, sending the prince flying to the cave wall. The current was also enough to push Aang backward so that he was out of the cave. I quickly scrambled to me feet and ran after Aang with Brianna, Nyoko, and Gin behind me. I saw him wiggle his way through the snow, thinking that he could escape that way. It was enough to make me laugh. I grabbed him by the collar and tried to untie him but before I could, I heard Zuko shooting fire at me. When I looked up I realized Brianna had blocked his attack.

"That won't be enough to escape!" he told us. I suddenly heard a familiar growl from above. It recognized the furry bison right away along with our other friends riding on him.

"Appa," the three of us shouted at the same time. Appa landed several feet away from us as Katara quickly jumped off of his back.

"Here for a rematch?" Zuko asked Katara.

"Trust me Zuko, it's not going to be much of a match" she told him confidently as she bent some water to shield her from Zuko's attack. Before Zuko could send another attack Katara bent the snow between them that created a pillar that trapped Zuko. She then froze the snow until she was sure she got Zuko. A second after she pushes the pillar back to the ground knocking Zuko out completely. Sokka ran over to my side and helped free Aang by cutting it with his boomerang.

"Hey, this is some quality rope!" Sokka said and examined the rope in his hand.

"We need to get to the oasis" Aang said as he untied his legs "The spirits are in trouble!" He and the others climbed aboard Appa. I was about to move until I heard Zuko groan. I just couldn't leave him here. I knew he wasn't a bad guy and I couldn't help but think of Iroh too.

"Wait a second Aang," I called out. I looked back at Zuko and he must have known what I was going to say.

"You're right we can't just leave him here" he said agreeing.

"Sure we can," Sokka corrected. "Let's go" I saw a snowball hit his head, of course, it was Brianna who threw it. Immature was it was, I couldn't help but be grateful she had done it.

"No, if we leave him, he'll die" Aang told him as he hopped off of Appa.

"Yeah, this makes a lot of sense" Sokka complained. "Let's bring the guy who's constantly trying to kill us!"

"Aang, hold on" I said stopping him from grabbing Zuko. "I'll take care of Zuko." I saw Aang raise an eyebrow and saw Sokka in the back with his mouth was wide open.

"You want to what?" Sokka shouted out. "Who knows what he'll do when he wake up? He's too dangerous to handle on your own." I ignored Sokka and turned to Aang as I began to explain my theory.

"Aang, you can't waste anymore time. You said yourself that the Spirits are in danger. If that's true then splitting up would be the best idea. This way we can keep Zuko as far away from us as possible and don't have to worry about him."

"What about you?" Aang asked me.

"Gin and I will come as soon we drop Zuko off" I told him.

"I'm coming too!" Brianna whined.

"You should stay with Aang so that…." I started to say.

"Hell no, I'm coming with you!" she shouted out angrily "And there's nothing that will fucking stop me!" I stayed quiet knowing that Brianna never used the f word unless she was really angry or determined.

"Umm sure," I said. I had to let her go. I had this bad feeling that if I didn't she would whine and complain about this until the day I died or even in the afterlife. Yeah not something I want to hear. "We'll catch up with you guys later" I said to Aang.

"Yeah sure," Aang said. He was staring at Brianna, probably in shock. He and the others are not use to Brianna being so angry. Yeah sure there we times when things made his mad and she ranted but they've never seen her rage. Not like I have at least. Aang jumped onto Appa and with that they took off. I turned back to Brianna and put Zuko's right arm over my shoulders. I didn't realize how much heavier he was compared to Aang! I made a mental note to work out a bit more.

"I guess he'll ride with me since Gin's stronger," I told her. I heard Gin let out a sigh but allowed me to put Zuko onto his back. I positioned myself so that I was sitting behind him. Zuko's head was leaned against my right shoulder. It was very uncomfortable being so close! I could feel every breath he took. Despite how warm his breath was the face on his skin seemed frozen. I was taken back a bit by how cold Zuko felt. I didn't know how long he had stayed in that cave out in a storm but it really did do a number on him. "For a fire bender he's pretty cold," I told Brianna. I pulled him closer to me, hoping to share some of my body heat. And with Brianna watching me like she was I was plenty hot, at least my cheeks were burning. I jumped when I Brianna randomly squealed behind me. I was about to yell at her but then I noticed she looked happy, too happy. She must have noticed I looked confused and covered her smile.

"It's nothing," she said trying to hide her happiness. A giant fail but she did try. I was about to press further when I felt Zuko shiver then I decided to drop it. Taking care of Zuko was the first priority, and with his dropping temperature I knew I couldn't leave him alone. I just hoped we would make it to Aang and the others in time.


I've been getting a lot of requests or suggestions from readers and I'm sorry to say I won't be taking them. Since I take so long as it is to update I doubt I'd be able to squeeze in another story or chapter. Again I'm sorry but I feel bad that I make you guys wait this long and don't want anything else to get in the way of production.