A/N: Hello, lovelies! Long time no see. Unfortunately, as a college student that also works, it's very difficult to find time, motivation, and inspiration to write, so it has taken me far too long to update this story and even change it. Rest assured I have just about finished Chapter 13 and plan to update the story with a new chapter when I'm halfway through or done with Chapter 14.

Something that also held me back with this fan fiction is the fact that I first developed this before Legend of Korra was finished, and as it turns out, I really, really, really hate Legend of Korra. I couldn't stand the characters, the writings, the insane technological evolution and how the unique Eastern representation of various cultures became Westernized, or the numerous plots (and yes, I am aware that Nickelodeon was only greenlighting one season at a time, but there was still too much going on), and I was extremely upset with the ending. I wasn't sure how to incorporate spirits living in the human world and a dismantled Earth Kingdom monarchy into my story. In particular, the Earth Kingdom monarchy was always a major plot point that I didn't want to get rid of.

I have no intention of reading the ongoing LoK comic to figure out how the world will evolve following the cartoon's conclusion, so I've reworked some things to suit my narrative. I do want to stick to canon as closely as possible, but not everything will be the same. Basically, I have decided what has happened to the world between the end of LoK and Sarika's birth.

Another thing that I want to mention now (because it would be difficult to explain in the story) is that the current environment in Sarika's world is intended to be more 1950's-esque to match the technological explosion and 1920's aesthetic seen in LoK. However, things that were created in the Cold War, such as nuclear and atomic weapons, Internet, satellites, rockets, and space programs do not exist because of the lack of competitive incentive seen when the USSR was around (plus there's no need for other weapons of mass destruction when spirit energy can be used in such a way).

Lastly, the original antagonistic organization was going to be something of my own design, called the Scarlet Regime. However, I decided to incorporate the Red Lotus instead, but it's overall objectives have changed with the times and new leadership. I thought it would be easier to take an already established group and have them develop a new mission that matches what I intended the Scarlet Regime to be, and it will be explained why and how the Red Lotus changed in the story.

Whew, okay, I think that's everything. These reuploads are just a few tweaks to my writing and correcting mistakes, but I hope you will get excited for the next installment!

For reasons beyond her comprehension—perhaps it was the spirits working in their mysterious ways—Sarika felt relaxed when she woke up next, like she had finally caught up on some much needed sleep. She felt refreshed, the bed felt comfortable, and for a moment she just wanted to bury herself into the nice, fluffy blankets and sleep in, just once, and not spend any time training. Screw the private healing classes she had with Master Wibawa on the weekends; her joints and sore shoulders needed some relief. Ooh, she could sleep in, spend the afternoon in the forest with Ki, eat some possum chicken and beetle worm soup for dinner, then soak in the hot communal bath until she was sweating.

But then she remembered. Flashes of the past few weeks flew through her head—when Tomiko captured her, a month spent in the Red Lotus's hands. Then there was that blip in her memory, the one she still couldn't figure out, and then….

She sat up with a gasp, realizing she wasn't in her bed anymore. Sarika put a hand on her forehead and looked down at the bed sheets, breathing hard. She recalled Raava's voice. She knew she had spoken to her, but what had she said? She said she and her past lives took her someplace…?

"Awake again, eh?"

Sarika started and turned towards the sound. There was a man sitting next to her, on the chair where her clothes had been. He wore a green military like uniform and had intense green eyes that were darker than hers. He had shaggy, yellow hair, and she blinked at him in wonder. There was also the man who said he was Germany from before present, the woman who called herself Hungary, a man whose yellow hair reached his shoulders and had minor traces of stubble, and then the remaining two looked to be siblings and of Fire Nation decent. They had the common dark brown hair—similar to her own, except Sarika's hair was so dark it could look black or brown depending on the light—and the amber eyes of the island nation natives.

"I—I am?" she said uncertainly, still feeling dazed. She tried to realign with her train of thought before the man spoke. Yes, Raava most definitely talked to her and said she and previous Avatars took her somewhere else. That could only mean one thing. Her blank spot in her memory had to have been the moment she was transported.

Sarika's mind reeled. Had she gone into the Avatar State?

"How do you feel?" Hungary asked. Then she added, "Your name is Sarika, correct?"

She hesitated in answering, and tried to sort through her thoughts. So she just nodded in reply to her second answer. "I feel…I feel…." Sarika rubbed her eyes. "I feel disoriented," she said honestly. "And confused. Hungry, too. But by hungry I mean I want food, not as in your name."

The woman stared at her for a moment, and Sarika thought she may have offended her. But then the woman laughed, and the Avatar relaxed. "My name's not hungry, dear. Hungary. Like the European nation. It's spelled H-U-N-G-A-R-Y."

Sarika wrinkled her brow. She didn't understand her last two sentences at all, but decided to let it go. She glanced around again, mildly horrified that she had forgotten all that she had experienced in the past month, no matter how briefly. She had no reason to trust these people. They were probably just buttering her up, and would strike the moment she felt comfortable with them. Just like Tomiko. Still, there was a shroud of doubt inside of her. If Raava's intent had been to save her, then these people would be her allies, wouldn't they? Unless she had been kidnapped from the people she was actually supposed to be taken to….

The Avatar felt a headache grow in her skull. She shook her head to clear it.

"Where are you from?" Hungary pressed. Again, Sarika hesitated. Did they really not know who she was? How was she to ask if they knew she was the Avatar without exposing herself if they didn't?

Thinking over her words carefully she said, "You…you do not know? You really do not know?"

Hungary shook her head. "All I know is your name and where you are now. And that Taiwan—" she pointed a finger at the other woman in the room, and then turned her thumb towards the man with the hair band "—and China found you just outside this house covered in blood. Do you know what happened, dear?"

Sarika felt an icy cold gather in her chest. "No," she whispered, recalling her bloodstained clothes and hair. She touched the top of her head, her hair feeling thick and tangled. When she pulled her hand back, it was red. She shook her head, disturbed. "No, I…I really don't."

There was a pause. Finally the man with the green eyes asked rather gruffly, "Then what's the last thing you remember before the first time you woke up here?"

She must have looked mortified, or maybe about to cry, because there was a visible shift in everyone's demeanor. Suddenly they looked more uneasy, more tense, like they were prepared were she to jump and try to flee again. "I…I was…there was a man, and he was—" Her throat closed, stopping her words. She bowed her head and shut her eyes tightly, stopping her tears from spilling over.

"Hey." The other girl, Taiwan, came over and touched Sarika's hand. She looked up at her, and hated herself for enjoying her sympathetic eyes. She didn't deserve sympathy, and she shouldn't have wanted it as much as she did. But she just wanted to be treated well again. After her month of torture, and her year of painful training, she just wanted to relax now. At least for now, before she couldn't ignore her Avatar duties any longer.

"I know it's hard for you, but please, we need to know." Taiwan squeezed Sarika's hand. "Whoever lost that much blood is in danger. We need to help them. We need to know what happened to you."

But Sarika didn't want to tell. It hurt to tell, and if it was Damodar's blood that was on her, if he had died, wouldn't it have been good to get rid of an enemy Bloodbender? She knew it wasn't okay to think that. She hated herself for thinking such cruel thoughts. But they wouldn't go away.

"I don't know," she persisted, words becoming a rushed jumble as she rapidly spun a story in her head. "I don't know where I was, either. I had gone to bed, and I was woken up and taken somewhere strange. Someone was trying to hurt me, so I kicked him, and I don't remember anything after that." Okay, so that wasn't the full truth. But she didn't owe these people that. Sarika felt a bitter taste rise in her throat. She felt that anger again, that anger that pushed through her sadness and self-pity. She moved her hand away from the other girl.

There was another pause. Then Taiwan said, "Well, what state do you live in, then? Were you visiting this country?"

"State? What do you mean by state?"

Taiwan's expression deteriorated from one of sympathy to confusion. "You know, state. You are from America, right? You sound like it. Or maybe you're Canadian? Or from an American territory?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Sarika said. "I have told you already, haven't I? I'm from—" And then she stopped when she realized something. Last time she was awake, didn't they ask her what the Earth Kingdom was? And hadn't they said she was in a strange place she didn't know, either? Someplace called…China, was it?

Sarika felt that pull on her soul again. She sensed the world around her shift. For a split second she saw the energy around her, all in the colors of the chakras, and she saw the auras change hue. She couldn't tell what colors they become, though—her vision returned to normal too quickly. She felt that thing she had before. That instinct deep inside of her that told her something was just off.

She felt…wrong. She discovered then that she shouldn't have been where she was for multiple reasons. The change in the energies she had never noticed before until they shifted, these people with strange appearances, that spoke of places that didn't exist….

At least, they didn't exist in her world.

She felt the blood drain from her face, and her vision tunneled. Spirits, what have you done? she thought meekly. Did they know where she was from? No, no, they certainly didn't seem to. If they did, they wouldn't be asking her what 'state' she was from and not know of the Earth Kingdom. Should she tell them? No—at least not yet. Sarika needed to know these people and this dimension she was in while she had the advantage of knowing she was in a realm separate from her own. And what would they do if she told them the truth, and Bended to prove it? There were so many options her head spun, from torture to brainwashing, and she couldn't think of a positive outcome. No, definitely feign ignorance at all costs. That was the best plan.

"Earlier you said you were from somewhere else. The 'Earth Kingdom', was it?" the man with the shoulder-length yellow hair asked.

Sarika cringed, regretting that she told them earlier. But in retrospect, she had never in her life considered being transported to a completely new reality! She knew they existed, that there were portals to other worlds in the Spirit Dimension, but actually being in one? She was scared, but maybe even more intrigued. She wondered what was similar and what was different in this world compared to her own.

Her brain scrambled for a possible lie. "I…um…yes, the Earth Kingdom." She hoped that sounded like a lie. If it did, then they wouldn't believe her, and she couldn't pretend to be from somewhere else when she didn't know what kinds of places there were here, so that would leave them stumped.

The man with the brown hair in a ponytail regarded her carefully. "I've never heard of that place. Where is it?"

"Where is China?" Sarika countered. "I've never heard of such a place in my life."

The man looked almost horrified. "How could you not know where my house is?" he demanded. "China is China! It's the largest country in Asia! How could you not know?"

"Um…." Seeing she had offended him, she tried to appease her possible ally. "I—I'm sorry, sir, but I just don't know." She looked down.

"Then where is the Earth Kingdom?"

She continued to look down and didn't answer, and everybody waited and waited, but she refused to speak. Sarika just prayed they wouldn't torture her for the information. She never wanted to go through that again.

Eventually, Germany sighed. "Sarika, that man and Taiwan saved your life this morning. Don't you owe it to him to tell the truth?"

"No," she replied immediately. She heard the smallness in her voice as his words took effect and she began feeling guilty. She looked back to China. "I appreciate you finding me and providing me with shelter, sir. I am in your debt. But I'm still so confused about my circumstances. My name is true, and it's true that I don't remember what happened at all. It's true that I'm from the Earth Kingdom, but I've never heard of China, and I don't know where my home is in relation to here. That's all you need to know." Surprised by her own boldness, she took in a deep breath.

There was another silence. Sarika braced herself, prepared to jump away. After her rest she felt good for once. Prepared, confident in her Bending skills. She could feel strong auras coming from the people before her—they had power, that was for sure. But theirs was different from hers and, hopefully, that served in her favor. There was something else in the energy around her—something strange, but she was unable to place it. But that could be learned later.

Her stomach rumbled, reminding her she had eaten nothing but a pear all day - rather, every day for a month - but she kept quiet. The last thing she wanted was to offend these people further and get kicked out.

"Ah—that reminds me," Taiwan finally said, hearing Sarika's hunger, "I made something for you."

She turned around and picked up a bowl with the top covered in foil from the dresser and carried it back. She handed it to Sarika, then passed her a pair of chopsticks. "I thought you might be hungry, so I made you some food. Nothing fancy; just noodles, steamed vegetables, and boiled meat, but I hope you enjoy it!"

Sarika was surprised to feel herself smile. She hadn't done that in awhile. "Thank you." She took off the foil and steam rose up, entering her nose. Ooh, it smelled good! "I…thank you. Thank you so much!" She snatched the chopsticks and blew hard on some noodles and celery she picked up, then stuffed them into her mouth. Despite her body betraying any traces of her malnourishment from the past few weeks, her famish remained.

Taiwan smiled, though it was strained. "You're quite welcome. It's late evening now, almost eight, and you haven't had a thing."

In her rush to consume her dinner, Sarika dropped a carrot slice on her blouse, and she recalled that it wasn't hers. She looked up and asked with a slight blush, "Er, who…who changed my clothes? And what happened to my robes?"

"Oh, that was me," Taiwan responded, to the Avatar's relief. She would've been mortified to hear it had been a man. "As for your old clothes, well…they're in the bathroom, hanging on the curtain rod. I tried cleaning them, but they're permanently stained, I'm afraid. I think we should throw those away."

Sarika was quiet for a moment, then said, "I see." The thought of throwing them out made her sad, for whatever reason. It felt like, by throwing them out, she was throwing away something important to her. It was like she was throwing out some kind of memory. The robes she was wearing when she arrived in this world were her favorite ones, the ones she wore all the time. Even when stowed away at the Academy, they still smelled of the open mountain air, the salty ocean, and the grassy plain her home village was nestled on. They smelled of burnt pastries from when her father tried to bake. They were soft, like her father's hands as he touched her cheek and wished her goodnight. They were warm, like Ki's fur as Rei nestled against her friend on a snowy night. They were comforting, like Jin's embrace….

She felt her throat close up when she thought of him. Jin…spirits, did she miss him…she hoped he was alright….

Sarika's appetite vanished. She set the bowl down in her lap, and studied the people before her, catching a glance at the man with the green eyes. "Excuse me, but…who are you?"

The man seemed to just realize that he hadn't introduced himself. "Ah, right. Well, I go by a few names, actually, but you can just call me England. I also go Britain and United Kingdom."

Sarika opened her mouth, and almost asked if the United Kingdom was similar to the United Republic, but then that would only raise more suspicion on her part. Then she almost asked if his hair color was natural, but managed to stop herself from asking that as well. She had to at least feign she understood this world. She was sick of being interrogated. She just wanted to be left alone. "And you, sir?" she asked the man with the longer hair and stubble.

He smiled kindly. "I am France, Miss Sarika."

Satisfied, she turned to the last man with the ponytail. "And you mentioned you were…?"

"China!" he cried, looking irritated. "How can you not know me? I'm the oldest country, with thousands of years of unique culture! I'm the most populous country! I'm the fourth largest nation in the world! How could you know not anything about me?!"

As he spoke, Sarika noticeably shrank away. She hated being yelled at. Her father only raised his voice to her once in awhile, when he was extremely angry, and she always went especially out of her way to never let that happen again. It scared her. It intimidated her. It made her feel small and weak.

"Oh, just ignore him," Taiwan said, glaring at China. "His pride's just hurt is all. He'll get over it."

"Hey!"

Sarika's head spun. "Wait a moment," she interrupted before the two Asian nations could begin to bicker. She pointed at China. "I thought you said China was a nation, but you said your name is China, except you're acting like you are China. I am confused. Are you…are you—" Sarika was too embarrassed to say it. It sounded so stupid! But maybe…this was what separated this world and hers? By this point, Sarika really wouldn't have been all that surprised if her hypothesis was correct.

Everyone in the room exchanged glances, and then Germany said, "Well, it's only natural that she's curious, and we already gave her our country names. We might as well tell her."

France looked to Sarika and grinned. "Do you think you can keep a secret?"

Caught off guard, Sarika answered rather uncertainly. "Yes…?"

"Good!" the man beamed. He sat down on the bed. "We, my dear"—with a sweeping motion he encompassed the room everyone else in it—"are the personifications of entire countries."

It took awhile for Sarika to process the information. Well, her hypothesis was somewhere along those lines, so she wasn't entirely wrong. "…Oh," she said quietly.

France laughed at the befuddled expression she was giving him. "Allow me to illuminate further. We all have normal human names we call ourselves by, but when we talk to each other, we normally just call each other by the country we represent. We're as old as certain countries, although usually older, and we've existed throughout our country's history. China addressed himself as China because he is China. I am France. England is England, and so forth. Does that make any sense?"

Suddenly, Sarika felt very weak compared to the people in the room with her. "So, wait, you're…immortal? Like spirits?" she asked hesitantly.

"Spirits?" France repeated. His smile wavered, but then returned. "I've never heard someone compare us like that. We're certainly not gods, if that's what you mean. We can die and age just like anyone else. It's just that we can only die when the entire nation collapses, and our physical ages reflect our country's age and development. For example, China over there"—he pointed a thumb at him—"is about five thousand years old, yet he still looks young because his country is highly developed. But then there's America—you hit him earlier today—who is also a first world country, yet he looks younger because he is only a few hundred years old, biologically speaking. His country is fairly young as well. Understand?"

"I…think so." Sarika turned the idea over in her mind. It helped her to compare this 'America' person to Avatar Aang. His appearance—perhaps capabilities, like strength and endurance—betrayed his true age due to being frozen in time. Okay, she could follow that. But wow, having people who were actually countries was rather...impressive. And if everyone in the room with her were nations, that meant there were more than just five here. Amazing! This world must have been far larger than her own if it could hold so many places.

A new thought struck her. "Wait. You asked me if I could keep a secret…like no one else knows." She gasped. "Does no one else know who you people really are?"

"Not normally, no," Germany ceded, looking angry. "Our bosses—the people who run the country, like England's Prime Minister and America's President—know, and some other people with high statuses in authority and government do, but we don't usually tell random citizens." He shot a glare at Hungary. "It's dangerous to do so."

Hungary met his glare calmly, and waved him aside. "Oh, don't be so stiff, Germany. She's just a child! What could she possibly do with the information? Besides, you gave her your name before me." Then she turned to Sarika before Germany could respond and said seriously, "But really, Sarika, it's important you don't tell anyone else. Not even your family. Understand?"

She nodded. "Yes, I do." But, while she meant it, it was just an automatic answer. Living nations! Did the Five Nations have personifications, too? Should she, as the Avatar, know them? When she toured the world and visited their leaders, none of them had mentioned nation-people, not even hypothetically. Were these kinds of people exclusively found in this dimension? Oh, there was so much she didn't know, she had so many questions that she didn't know where to start!

No, she had to focus, she realized. She didn't have time to stop and chat and ask. She had to find a way home. She had to protect Jin, and the members of the White Lotus, stop the Red Lotus, and save the world….

Sarika felt dizzy, and felt the same nausea she always felt when she considered all the tasks that rested on her shoulders. She felt a rock form in her throat. Why, oh why did it have to be her?

"Good," Hungary replied, snapping Sarika out of her thoughts. "I'm glad. Now, then, why don't we—"

"Um," Sarika interrupted, swallowing thickly.

Hungary raised a brow. "Yes?"

"I…um…." She looked down. "I…can I be alone for a little bit? I, um…" Her eyes searched the room, and she saw the bathroom door. "I don't feel very well…I'd like to bathe."

Hungary blinked. "Oh, of course!" she cried, jumping to her feet. "I didn't even think of that! Okay, go ahead and take a shower, sweetie."

Then Taiwan cut in. "I'll lend you something to wear when you're done, too."

Sarika eased off the mattress and stood, pressing her right fist to her left palm and bowing in respect. "Thank you, ma'am."

"Er—" Taiwan looked confused, and Sarika wondered why she wasn't bowing back. Or maybe they didn't do that here? "I—It's no problem," she replied. She began heading for the door. "I'll be back in a minute with some pajamas for you. Come on, let's go."

One by one, everyone began filing out of the room. Germany and England stared at her suspiciously, China looked unsure, but the others looked rather at ease. She couldn't blame the former two for not trusting her, but she didn't like it. Either way, she just needed a moment to herself. To breathe.

The door shut behind England, and Sarika headed for the bathroom.