::The Last Avatar::

Gamer Edition

BOOK ONE
LEVIATHAN

1.7

Impossible Things

Rue stared lethargically around her newly appointed room as she tried to muster up the energy for, well, anything really. Since her mini breakdown after her initial awakening, almost a week ago now, Godo had ordered her on bed rest. With Yuffie as his traitorous little enforcer Rue hadn't really stood much of a chance if she'd tried. As it was, Rue felt like she had Glandular Fever all over again with her distinct lack of energy. The doctor who'd seen her however had simply stated she was emotionally and physically exhausted and needed rest. A lot of it.

Godo, though still standoffish and rude, seemed slightly mollified after her 'success' in battle, shown with his new found generosity in allowing her the room upgrade and a promise of training to begin once she was given the all clear by her doctor. He'd even given her a very old, and very simple, water bending scroll, that had 'been in his family for generations' apparently, to study and, if she felt up to it, practice the basics while still remaining in bed. How she was to do that was still beyond Rue at this point and she was a little hesitant about bending if she were being honest with herself.

'Don't know why, it should come as natural as breathing to you,' Korra grumbled at her. Her peanut gallery were growing restless, too much laying about they said and that was fine for a group of people that were generally heroes and men and women of action for the most part. Rue did not exactly see herself as that, particularly when the heroes of the 'Final Fantasy' series usually, not always, but usually, ended up emotionally, if not physically scarred. Because that just sounded like a barrel of laughs. Yeah. No. If Rue could avoid that shit she would, hands down, avoid playing the hero. Cloud could keep that shit all to himself.

"You didn't grow up in a world where crazy shit like this, is excepted as impossible," Rue muttered her response under her breath.

'Then be like Alice.' Was the short answer she received. It took a moment for Rue to comprehend that reference.

"So what? You want me to believe three to five impossible things before breakfast?" she snorted at the idea. It shouldn't be too hard considering where she was, magic, monsters and homicidal alien squids and all. Not to mention one winged men who could actually fly straight.

'Sounds good, lay them on us,' one of the others chimed in now. Rue thought he was the water Avatar before Korra, or something, from his somewhat laid back tone. He sounded like a surfer dude stereotype to Rue.

Frowning as she considered the request Rue didn't notice the door sliding open until an energetic ball of black and green tackled her, almost knocking her off the futon completely.

"I passed my stealth test!" Yuffie announced loudly as she practically hung off Rue's shoulders excitedly. She was so pleased with herself that Rue's generally mopey mood was washed away with little problem due to Yuffie's infective personality. Giving the little girl an amused smile, Rue righted herself and gently pried Yuffie off her so she could sit comfortably.

"Well done, kiddo, knew you had it in you!" she ruffled Yuffie's hair fondly. The little tyke was really growing on her the more time they spent together.

It was getting late and Yuffie had just been herded out of her room by one of the maids to her own room for bedtime. The little girl had been as stubborn as ever, but Rue had pointed out that she would need her energy for her more advanced training. Once she'd heard that the little ninja in training hadn't been able to scramble to bed fast enough.

Now alone once again Rue turned her thoughts back to the challenge her 'past lives' had presented her with. It was interesting for sure, and, likely, a handy little exercise to practice in the long run. The more she considered it, the better this idea was sounding.

Optional Repeatable Quest Discovered!

*Five for Five *

…

Well the Alice in Wonderland reference was a bit lame, but then again this is you we're talking about.

The goal is to believe five impossible things for five days running.

Think you can manage that, brat?

Every time you complete this quest you'll be awarded a EXP bonus.

You'll also get another item from our Sponsors for the first completion of this Quest.

Cause, you know, repeatable Quests….

…

Impossible things Believed in: 0/15

Days Completed: 0/5

Rue jumped in response to the sudden appearance of the unexpected screen in her face. She hadn't seen one in a few days, lulled into a false sense of security indeed. Sitting back she dismissed the screen and frowned to herself in thought. Five impossible things to believe in.

"Okay then, there is such a thing as other worlds." Rue said with a decisive nod to herself. While nothing was said from the peanut gallery, she did get the feeling that they were paying a little more attention to her. Taking a deep breath she pushed ahead, "the fictional characters of Final Fantasy Seven do, in fact, exist. I am a twenty five year old in a sixteen year olds body. I can use Materia." Rue hesitated at her last seemingly impossible thing that she now believed. She swallowed and took a deep breath before vocalising something that had been bothering her for days. "I am capable of killing people." She finished quietly. Rue's hands shook, but she refused to cry about this again, it was something about herself she had to come to terms with and maybe this 'quest' would help her deal with her own, completely insane, surroundings.

Frowning Rue stared down at her cup of water, Korra had been harassing her to at least try to water bend all morning and Rue was trying to psyche herself up to give it a try. It wasn't really going well if she was totally honest.

'I don't know why this is so hard for you, just lift the water out of the damn cup already!' Korra demanded impatiently. Grimacing Rue sighed, shifted on the futon uncomfortably. She knew why it was hard. Knew why she was procrastinating. So much about her life had changed since she'd died and ended up on Gaia, bending was looking to be one thing too many from Rue's perspective. Of course, it didn't help that she wasn't entirely convinced that she could, Avatar State or no, that first battle could have totally been a fluke. Or something. 'Yeah I'm calling bullshit there,' was her only response to that thought. Huffing Rue shifted again and glared at the cup of water.

'The more you procrastinate, the harder it will be in the long run.' Aang, ever the voice of reason, pointed out. He was right, of course, Rue knew that. She also knew that bending would make her life easier and harder at the same time. It would, more or less, prove that she was the Avatar. Not completely, not until she bent more than one element, but it would be a starting point. After that she'd probably be thrown into more battles and see even more death and oh gods she was going to throw up.'Rue, calm down, we don't expect you to be a pro right away, you just need to take that first step despite the fear,' damn Aang. She hated when he decided to be all insightful.

Taking a deep nose-breath Rue settled herself down again and tried to centre herself, uncertain of how well she managed it, before focusing on the water within the cup before her. Raising her hand hesitantly Rue tried to lift the water from the ceramic holding it, nothing happened at first, making Rue frown even more than she already was. Fortunately her stubborn streak kicked in and instead of giving up, Rue tightened her focus on the small cup of water, willing it to move with her. 'Water flows,' Aang reminded her patiently. Rue snorted at that, her hand quivered a little as her frustration began to bleed through her shaky calm and a ripple appeared in the water. Seeing this Rue smiled a little and her drive to succeed only increased. Challenge accepted bitches.

It was at this point that the sound of something fracturing came from the cup. Blinking Rue stopped trying to water bend and lifted the cup worriedly, what the hell had she done now? Upon looking into said cup Rue found her mouth dropping open a little as she tipped the cup upside down and a lump of ice dropped into her waiting hand.

"Holy. Shit. Did I do that?" incredulous Rue stared at the block of ice in her hand. The almost hysterical laughing coming from her invisible peanut gallery told her that, yes, she did just freeze the water in the cup instead of making it move. A slow, somewhat disbelieving, smile crept across Rue's face as she turned the ice over, it was perfectly shaped to fit the cup and all Rue found herself capable of doing in that moment was shake her head. It should have been impossible, but Rue was quickly learning that impossible was merely a challenge from the world.

'Now try to put it back into the cup as a liquid,' the amusement in Korra's tone as she issued her next challenge made Rue roll her eyes. She had a feeling they wanted to watch her fail miserably. Not in a malicious way, of course, but in the way that old friends get a kick out of seeing each other fail hard every once and a while.

"Fine," Rue pretended to grumble. In truth she was feeling a little more confident now, and far more willing to believe she could bend. Taking a deep breath Rue rolled her shoulders and placed her focus back on the lump of ice in her left hand. Raising her right hand, with her wrist relaxed, Rue took a deep breath and moved her hand in an awkwardly graceful motion upward. Needless to say she almost completely lost her concentration when the lump of ice melted and flowed up in a stream of water, following her hand's movements. It wouldn't be until much later that Rue would realise how much she was grinning as she slowly bent the water higher into the air above her, now using both her hands instinctively to guide the water in it's flows.

Of course, nothing lasts forever, including the ephemeral feelings of awe, excitement and disbelief that were that were racing through Rue as the small stream of water arced above her in gently moving streams.

"HOLY LEVIATHAN!" were the words that cut through Rue's precarious concentration and brought screeching a halt to her first bending practice as the water didn't hesitate to drop on the startled teen. Looking over at the doorway Rue as water dripped down the back of her neck and laughter echoed through her head, Rue found herself looking into the dumbfounded expression of a five year old Yuffie. Rue wasn't sure if it were the little girl's expression or perhaps the fact that her entire peanut gallery was laughing at her, truthfully it didn't matter, because one minute she was staring across the room at Yuffie and the next she was holding her sides as borderline hysterical laughter pealed out of her. She could bend.

It wasn't until Rue calmed down that Yuffie offered her a towel for her wet hair that the little girl demanded to know how she had made the water move and what Materia she had used for it. It took some explaining to convince the little girl that she hadn't, in fact, used any Materia for that particular trick. Of course then she had to explain the basics about water bending to the five year old. Eventually Yuffie was satisfied on Rue's explanation of 'magic water' and settled down to tell her friend what she'd learnt that day as she always did, though every now and then she thought of a new question about bending that made Rue grimace and think before she spoke.

It took some time, but after an hour or two the conversation petered out and they entered the 'peaceful co-existence phase' of the day, as Rue had come to call it. This usually didn't last long, and although it was normally Yuffie who broke the companionable silence, Rue had recalled a certain something during their talk and required the little girls help.

"Hey Yuffie?" she asked after a moment. Big grey eyes looked up at her questioningly and Rue grinned at her. "Could you grab my bag for me? I just remembered something," beaming at her Yuffie quickly leapt to her feet and hurried over to the blue bag across the room. Rue was thankful she didn't have much in it yet as she watched Yuffie struggle with the long strap of her bag. Thanking the girl Rue opened the bag and riffled through it, looking for her latest prize. She hadn't had time to even look at it on the field and now that she remembered it, it had occurred to Rue that it had been a 'Sponsored Item', much like the reward for her latest quest would be. With a victorious 'ah ha!' Rue drew out a reasonably sized plushie, however when she saw what it was a plushie of she couldn't help the snort of laughter as she looked down at it.

In Rue's hand was a, disturbingly detailed, plushie of what could only be describe as 'Sokka on Cactus Juice' (complete with his 'friendly giant mushroom' and 'cactus juice cup'), which it helpfully said on the tag poking out of said plushies butt. Along with the name of the manufacturer. "Cabbage Corp," Rue muttered in amusement as she tried not to snicker. It was a good quality plushie though, and with out a doubt, one of her new favourite possessions.

'Well that brings back memories,' Aang commented through some barely repressed chuckling. This comment only made Rue's own fond smile grow as flashes of that particular day sifted through her own mind courtesy of the older Avatar.

That night, as Rue got ready to sleep she thought over the days events with a small smile. Maybe things would get better on their own, with time.

"One," she began resolutely, "I can talk to my past lives," the amusement she felt from her peanut gallery made her grin. "Two: I am friends with Yuffie Kisaragi. Three: My cat turned into a Coeurl upon arrival on Gaia," Rue laughed a little. She was worried about Tera not being there with her, but on the other hand she wasn't sure what Godo and his people would make of her companion either. "Four: I can use a bow," Rue was proud of this skill. She'd always wanted to take up archery, but hadn't had the money to in the past. The fact that she had the opportunity to do so now, despite the circumstances was something that Rue had decided to embrace as much as she could. Rue hesitated before she verbalised her last 'impossible' thing, this was important and she dearly hoped she could handle the levels of insanity her life was about to reach. "Five: I can water bend,"

AN: So this chapter was, not hard to write exactly, but difficult to put into words I guess. Rue needed an outlet to work through her own issues at being thrust into a world with so many glaring differences to her own. As such, you'll probably see more 'Impossible Things' in the future at seemingly random intervals.

Now. At the point we have reached I have to give fair warning. This fic covers, roughly, fifteen years of Rue's life. She'll be about 31 when it ends and there will (probably) be a LOT of time skips to stop me from waffling on about nothing. As such either next chapter or the one after with will begin Rue's Water Bending Training for real. Because of this I will be writing what equates to snapshots of her training and a few moments in between where she's just hanging out. This will be the basic structure for all of her future training montages as well. We'll see the important bits, some more bonus scenes and then training will end for the most part after a chapter or two. After which plot-like things should begin happening once more.

Also, maybe it's just me, but has 'B' been a bit...quiet...lately? I'm not certain that's a good thing or not...but then again, maybe she fell asleep again. Guess we'll have to wait and see.

Thanks for all the support everyone!
Reviews, Faves and Alerts always make my day~!

Till next time,
RLK