Disclaimer – all original Avatar: The Last Airbender characters in this fanfic (excluding my OC's) are the property of Bryana Konietzko and Michaela Dante DiMartino.
Chapter 19. The Harmonic Convergence.
Spirit World, The Tree of Time.
Yan Zu got up to his feet and stared at Huo, who was possessed by Shen'Rai. While he understood it was necessary for this situation, he worried it could end badly. Not only was Shen'Rai about to fight his brother, but he fought against time since he and Huo couldn't stay like this for too long.
The spirit in the boy's body knew that, and he didn't plan to waste any time. Making a circular motion with Huo's arm, Shen'Rai began to generate lightning. When the spirit aimed at Wei'Rai, Yan Zu noticed that instead of pointing at the phoenix with two fingers, Shen'Rai opened the palm, releasing dozens of small lightning sparks from all five fingers.
There was no way to avoid them since the attack covered a much wider area, unlike a normal lightning attack. Not to mention the number of sparks was ridiculous. Wei'Rai surrounded himself with a blue fire shield. The lightning sparks hit the shield, but none managed to get through and damage the phoenix.
"I know what you're planning, and it won't work," said Wei'Rai. "It's obvious you want to end this quickly so I only need to wait and defend until you'll have no choice but to leave his body."
Once again, Shen'Rai made a circular motion with Huo's right arm, dragging lightning sparks with two fingers. However, as he was about to shoot another lightning bolt, he placed the left hand on the right forearm. Only one thick lightning bolt came out from the two fingers with a loud flash and thunder.
Unlike regular lightning, which was zig-zagged shaped, the one Shen'Rai generated was completely straight like a lightning spear, and this time, Wei'Rai flew to the side, avoiding the attack. The phoenix immediately made a circular motion with his wing and shot a bolt of lightning at the dark clouds above them. The clouds began to flash, and a rumble of thunder was being heard.
Shen'Rai quickly moved Huo's right foot in a circular motion as if trying to draw a circle on the ground. He squatted, and with loud thunder, he immediately propelled himself with lightning to the side as a different lightning bolt came down from the clouds and hit the spot where the spirit stood a second ago. Shen'Rai continued to use the human feet to generate lightning and move with incredible speed in a straight line as lightning bolts came down from the sky, trying to hit him.
Yan Zu knew that the Fire Keepers knew more about firebending than any human firebender, but he didn't expect such skills and techniques. Every move they did was connected to lightning generation, and they used it like it was nothing more than a common firebending. It was a beautiful spectacle.
The man noticed that Wei'Rai kept hovering high in the air without changing his position, but he constantly kept his orange-colored eyes on Shen'Rai and moved his legs in all directions. Yan Zu could swear that the flashes in the dark clouds moved in sync with the phoenix's feet, and whenever Wei'Rai moved one of his feet downward, a bolt of lightning struck the ground. This surely meant that the phoenix decided when and where another lightning would strike.
Shen'Rai avoided every lightning bolt and kept his eyes on Wei'Rai, who also was utterly focused on his brother. Yan Zu felt this could take a long time, and time wasn't something they had much of. There was also a chance that Shen'Rai could make a risky, desperate move.
His thoughts were interrupted when Shen'Rai suddenly tripped and rolled a few times during his lunge with lightning, ending on all fours almost under the phoenix. Wei'Rai immediately moved his foot downward, sending a lightning bolt from the dark clouds at his brother, but at the same time, Shen'Rai quickly turned on his back and fired a combustion beam from the eye on his forehead.
The lightning and the combustion beam collided, resulting in a large explosion. Wei'Rai was pushed back by the shock wave but remained in the sky. However, the flashes and thunders in the dark clouds subsided. Yan Zu guessed that the phoenix lost focus and control over the technique.
Slightly dazed, Wei'Rai shook his head, and he spotted a flash in the corner of his eye. Before he could react, a beam of light pierced his left wing, leaving a burned hole. The phoenix felt excruciating pain and began to fall down from the sky. He flapped his wings a few times and slightly broke his fall, landing not far from Yan Zu.
Shen'Rai immediately dashed towards Wei'Rai, who turned towards him and swung his healthy wing, creating a large arc of blue fire. Shen'Rai jumped over it and shot a blue fireball from Huo's fist at the phoenix, who spun around and redirected it back at Shen'Rai.
Immediately after landing, the spirit in the boy's body hit the ball of fire with a jab, extinguishing his own attack. He and Wei'Rai began to exchange fire attacks. Both evaded, redirected, and extinguished each other's attack. With each move, Shen'Rai got closer and closer to Wei'Rai, who was exhausted from the injury and the pain.
Shen'Rai ducked under a flame blast, grabbed some dirt from the ground, and hurled it in Wei'Rai's eyes. While the phoenix closed his eyes and shook his head, Shen'Rai made a circular motion with both arms. Yan Zu thought the spirit wanted to generate lightning, but Shen'Rai suddenly winced and stooped. "No, not yet," the spirit groaned and tried not to fall over as Huo's body began to tremble. "Endure Huo, just a tiny bit longer."
Wei'Rai raised his leg and blindly brought it down. Shen'Rai leaned back, trying to avoid it, but the phoenix's sharp talons managed to cut the skin, leaving three bloody vertical marks on the boy's chest. Shen'Rai hissed in pain, touching the chest, and stumbled backward. His eyes widened when he noticed the blood. Luckily, it wasn't a severe injury, but it was another scar for the boy.
The phoenix blinked a few times and felt that he had scratched something. He noticed blood on the boy's chest and realized he had slashed him with his talons. "Get out of that body!" he ordered and leaned his head back, taking a deep breath. He was about to conjure a flame from his beak, but Yan Zu grabbed a random rock from the ground and threw it at the phoenix, hitting him in the side of the head and forcing him to lose his focus.
The phoenix turned his head towards Yan Zu with an angry glare. "Come on!" Yan Zu called out and grabbed another rock, preparing to throw it.
Letting his anger get the better of him, Wei'Rai turned to face Yan Zu. "Everything was fine until Shen'Rai met you!" he growled and began to move his right wing in a clockwise motion, dragging lightning sparks with the tip of his feather. Shen'Rai realized what was about to happen and lunged toward his brother, quickly getting behind him. He moved Huo's arms in a circular motion once again as if he tried to generate lightning. Instead, he hit Wei'Rai's spine in two places simultaneously with his thumbs.
The phoenix's body convulsed, and his limbs flailed in random directions as if he got a seizure until he fell forward. Shen'Rai exhaled and ran up to Yan Zu. "Grab Huo," he said and quickly left Huo's body, allowing Yan Zu to catch the boy before he fell to the ground. The man immediately checked the wound and exhaled with relief that it was nothing serious. Even though Shen'Rai left the boy's body, the symbol on Huo's forehead didn't vanish.
"It's over, Wei'Rai," Shen'Rai announced. "You lost control over your bending and your body. I've won. Just give up."
"Never!" Wei'Rai growled, trying to get back to his feet. Every time he tried to move one of his limbs, another limb moved instead. "I lost one sibling already, I won't lose another!"
"Wei'Rai, I won't be gone for good, you know that," Shen'Rai pointed out, flying closer to his brother. "I'll exist inside Huo just like Raava exists inside the Avatar."
"That's nothing to be proud of!" Wei'Rai raised his voice. "The mere thought of you merging with a human, who would use your power for his own gain, makes me sick!"
"I know what you think about humans, but I keep telling you not every human is bad," Shen'Rai replied. "Huo is a good kid, he respects the spirits just like his father."
"You really got hit too many times in the head if you think that he'll keep respecting spirits after what happened to him!" Wei'Rai said, finally managing to slowly and shakily get back to his feet. Still, there was no way for him to walk at a fast pace, much less fight. "He'll grow up to be just like the rest of them if not worse!"
"You don't even belevie it yourself," Shen'Rai replied. "If you'd have a certainty that Huo would become someone like that, you wouldn't take any chances earlier. You would kill him in his sleep in our realm during the first night."
Wei'Rai didn't reply to that while Shen'Rai continued. "It was our fault that Yuan'Shi escaped because we never bother to understand humans better," he pointed out. "We were too cryptic and didn't explain anything to Yan Zu and Huo. If we did, Huo wouldn't fall for Yuan'Shi manipulations. Everything that happened to him its our fault. He suffered and continues to suffer because of us. We can at least fix our mistake, by giving him a chance to live normally."
"I told you this is pointless," Wei'Rai replied somewhat calmly this time, hanging his head. "Yuan'Shi will kill every human. You're just giving him more time while sacrificing yourself."
"Maybe," Shen'Rai said. "But I want 'you' to give him a chance. He deserves at least that much."
Wei'Rai raised his head and looked at Shen'Rai, who only added. "I'm not saying goodbye since we'll have many opportunities to talk again. So, see you later, brother."
The spirit with the ribbon-like body turned around and flew back to Yan Zu. "How is he?" he asked, leaning towards Huo and looking at the bloody marks. "I'm sorry, his body was closing to its limit, and I lost focus."
"It's alright, it's just a scratch," Yan Zu reassured. "As long as he'll be fine, a scar is a small price to pay."
"Alright, come on," said the spirit. Yan Zu nodded, lifting Huo, and followed Shen'Rai. As they walked past Wei'Rai, Yan Zu stopped for a moment. "I don't understand why don't you want to at least try to stop Yuan'Shi," he stated, looking at Wei'Rai.
The phoenix didn't respond to him in any fashion at first. He just stood there injured and exhausted. "Ask Qhavaq to show you how Yuan'Shi was born," he finally replied. "You'll understand everything."
Yan Zu stood for a moment, and afterward, he continued to follow Shen'Rai. As they got closer to the tree, which stood on a pile of rocks, Shen'Rai flew to one of the rocks. The spirit's body began to glow in vibrant orange color. One of the rocks started to vibrate and suddenly dissipated, revealing a dark tunnel.
"This way," said Shen'Rai. As Yan Zu made a few steps towards the tunnel while holding his son, he heard a deep, masculine voice coming from the spirit trapped inside the tree. "Such a foolish decision, Fire Keeper," stated Vaatu. "To waste your powers on a human child. Yuan'Shi should've wiped them all out when she had the chance."
Yan Zu glanced at the trapped spirit, realizing that he probably saw the whole fight between Shen'Rai and his brother. "Don't pay attention to him," Shen'Rai replied. "Come on and mind your step."
The man followed Shen'Rai and entered the dark tunnel. He began to carefully walk down a steep slope. With each step he made, the tunnel became darker until he couldn't see anything. "I could really use some light right about now," he complained.
Finally, Yan Zu spotted a yellowish light in the distance. Slowly, he began to see that the tunnel had ended, and shortly after, they entered a large underground cave with a lake. The ground surrounding the lake was filled with colorful flowers. To Yan Zu's surprise, when he looked down, he noticed that the water under his feet felt like solid ground, even though with each step, he created a ripple, and he could perfectly see his own reflection.
Above them, the man saw gigantic roots with yellowish, glowing leaves, which were the source of light. As he looked around, he noticed that time flew much faster for every piece of greenery beside the roots with leaves above them. Everything grew, withered away, was born anew, and grew again. The whole cycle repeated itself in a matter of seconds.
"Is this the place?" Yan Zu asked.
"Yes," Shen'Rai confirmed. "This is the realm of Qhavaq, the Watcher of Time."
The leaves on the roots began to fall down towards the water. The moment they touched it, the yellowish energy began to spread over the sheet of water, which started to move and rise.
Yan Zu watched as the water began to take a round shape filled with yellow lines, which looked like veins. Two water tentacles emerged from both sides of the water and took the roles of arms. Right after that, a third water tentacle emerged from the front of the rounded mass of water with a yellow light on its end, which Yan Zu assumed worked like a face or maybe an eye.
"Greetings, Qhavaq," Shen'Rai spoke while Yan Zu bowed his head. "You know why we are here."
Yan Zu suddenly began to hear an echoing voice in his head. "Your arrival, I have seen, and your intentions are clean. The child's fate is sealed in stone, no matter if together with you or on his own."
After hearing the cryptic rhyme, the man squinted his eyes and looked at Shen'Rai. "Is he saying he knew we would come?" he asked.
"Yes," Shen'Rai confirmed. "Like I said, he knows the past, the present, and the future, but no, he won't reveal the future if you wanted to ask."
"Actually I would be more interested to know if he could change the past," Yan Zu replied.
"The threads of time have been already mend, to change what happened, it would mean its end," Qhavaq answered with a cryptic rhyme.
"We cannot change what already happened in the past," Shen'Rai translated. "If we could do that, the Keepers would ask for it immediately after the whole mess with Yuan'Shi started. Qhavaq won't allow anyone to do anything that would change the past."
Yan Zu looked at Huo, whom he held in his hands. "So... can he allow you to merge with Huo?" the man asked.
Shen'Rai flew closer to Qhavaq. "You know that I want to merge with that human child using Harmonic Convergence," he said. "So I would like to ask you to recreate that event if order to make this possible for us."
"The birth of the Avatar you shall see, your chance to merge forever it will be," Qhavaq replied, and his tentacle with the light was raised. The yellow light on its end began to glow even brighter, just like the lines inside the water mass. Yan Zu heard a sound underneath his feet and realized that the water had started to turn into sand.
The whole lake turned into a sand dune, which even covered the greenery. After a moment, a strong wind began to surround the dune, creating a large sandstorm, forcing Yan Zu to close his eyes and turn around with Huo. When the wind finally subsided and Yan Zu reopened his brown-colored eyes, he realized that all four of them were in front of the Tree of Time, but a couple of things were different.
The tree stood empty, and the two spirit portals, which appeared as two beams of energy, one blueish and the other yellowish, were opened. In the corner of his eye, Yan Zu spotted Vaatu, who flew around avoiding orange-colored fire blasts fired by a human with long black hair and slightly tattered, reddish clothes. The man realized that it had to be Wan.
While it seemed like the human had the advantage, Vaatu soon began to counterattack, hitting the human with his tentacles. When the spirit's body turned purple, he fired an energy beam of the same color from the center of his body. The two slowly moved their fight in the direction of Shen'Rai, Yan Zu, Huo, and Qhavaq.
"Is it safe to stand here?" Yan Zu asked, worried about Huo's safety.
"Everything you see is just the recreation of the past events," Shen'Rai explained. "So Wan and Vaatu will fight as if we wouldn't be here. They can't touch or harm us, but he same applies to us as well. We can't touch them and else anything around us."
The proof of Shen'Rai's words came when one of Vaatu's attacks hurled Wan towards Yan Zu, who flinched and closed his eyes by instinct. The human firebender flew through Yan Zu and Huo as if they were intangible. When Yan Zu opened his eyes, Vaatu hovered in front of him, oblivious to their presence.
"It was I who broke through the divide that separated the plane of Spirits from the material world," Vaatu spoke to Wan and shot another of his beam attacks, which, just like Wan, went through Yan Zu and Huo without harming them. Even the explosion and the chunks of the earth, which were sent in all directions, didn't hurt them. "To hate me is to give me breath," the spirit of darkness spoke again. "To fight me is to give me strength. Now prepare to face oblivion!"
Vaatu shot another purple beam at the human, but this time, Wan propelled himself away with fire. He dodged, but after he landed, he fell to his knees, exhausted. "Raava!" he called, looking towards a cat deer spirit, who carried his belongings. "The only way to win is together!"
At first, Yan Zu thought Wan talked to the cat dear, but just then, a small white-colored spirit flew out from a teapot and headed toward Wan. The spirit flew inside Wan, merging with him. Wan resumed his fight with Vaatu, but this time, he wielded all four elements instead of just fire.
Qhavaq slowly hovered its watery body and headed towards the Northern spirit portal. "Come on," Shen'Rai said to Yan Zu, who took a last glance at Wan and Vaatu, who fought closer to the Southern spirit portal. While he was curious to see the fight, Huo was more important now.
The Watcher of Time led the three to the yellowish spirit portal and stooped right in front of it. "During the Harmonic Convergence the cosmic energy I will become, when that happens, you two can become one," said the spirit.
Shen'Rai turned towards Yan Zu. "Are you still okay with?" he asked. "There will be no way to undo this once we merge."
"Yes," Yan Zu assured, looking at the unconscious boy. After a few seconds, he looked back at Shen'Rai and smiled at him. "Thank you, my friend."
"Don't mention it," Shen'Rai replied.
A resonating sound above them drew their attention. Both spirit portals began to overlap, creating an arc. From that arc, yellow lightning bolts of pure energy began to hit the ground around the Tree of Time. Qhavaq reached out with his tentacle arm and touched the portal. His whole body began to glow with the same light as the portals. Since the spirit was the only one who could interact with everything around here, he absorbed the cosmic energy and acted like a spirit portal during the Harmonic Convergence.
"Okay, let's do this," Shen'Rai said as Yan Zu gently placed Huo on the ground. The Fire Keeper spirit once again merged with the boy, opened his orange-colored eyes, and stood up. He exhaled and quickly approached Qhavaq, not wanting to put any more stress on Huo's body. Since he couldn't touch the portal, he needed to touch the Watcher of Time.
Yan Zu suddenly heard a human scream and was blinded for a moment by a white light coming from the Southern spirit portal. Wan already touched the portal and permanently merged his spirit with Raava, becoming the Avatar. Even from afar, Yan Zu spotted Wan, whose entire body was covered in a light-blue hue for a few moments until it returned to its normal colors.
While he continued his fight with Vaatu, Shen'Rai in Huo's body touched Qhavaq. An orange hue began to spread over the boy's hand, then his arm, and finally, the body. When Huo was covered by an orange hue from head to toe, he took a step back and turned around to look at Yan Zu with glowing orange-colored eyes.
The boy lifted his head and screamed, conjuring a violet-colored flame, as a blinding orange light emerged from him. When it finally subsided, Yan Zu noticed that the scar on the left side of Huo's face and the three ones on his chest glowed in violet color, just like the symbol of the eye with two wings on his forehead.
"Our flames are united for eternity," Huo and Shen'Rai's combined voices issued from the boy's mouth. The orange hue subsided, and the scars stopped glowing. Huo closed his eyes and stumbled forward, but Yan Zu moved quickly and caught him.
"Ugh..." Huo groaned and slowly reopened his orange-colored eyes.
"Huo?" Yan Zu asked, wanting to make sure he talked to his son.
"Dad?" Huo asked with his own voice and looked around, confused. "Where... what happened?" The boy suddenly winced, feeling the pain from the wound on his chest.
"Everything's fine, Huo," Yan Zu said, prompting his son to sit on the ground. "Rest for now. I'll explain later."
"My role is done, two flames became one," Qhavaq stated as his body stooped to glow. The Watcher of Time withdrew his tentacle arm from the spirit portal and turned to face Yan Zu and Huo.
Just like before, the yellow light on the end of his main tentacle and the yellow lines inside his watery body began to glow brighter. The ground underneath Yan Zu and Huo's feet turned to sand. The man knew that another sandstorm was coming.
"Close your eyes, Huo," Yan Zu said to Huo when a powerful wind created another sandstorm, which engulfed everything.
When Yan Zu and Huo opened their eyes, they were back in the underground cave under the Tree of Time. Huo didn't realize yet that he was sitting on a lake. He also didn't notice that Qhavaq extended his tentacle arm towards his chest. Every human had a natural ability to heal, and the spirit accelerated the time for that process. The skin healed itself, the pain subsided, and the blood clotted and dissolved, leaving only three scars in a matter of a few seconds.
Yan Zu exhaled with relief that everything went as planned. Finally, something good happened to them.
"One thing still remains, and it is up to you; do you want to see the history of Yuan'Shi, or do you chose not to?" Qhavaq asked, gaining Yan Zu's attention. He wasn't surprised that the spirit knew about Wei'Rai's words.
"I'm sure you already know the answer to that," Yan Zu replied and nodded. "If that's not an issue, show me everything what happened so I can understand."
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