Disclaimer: I don't own.
{◐...chapter eight...◑}
It was another rainy day, but this time with high winds and a rough off-and-on downpour. The city was mostly empty as crowds tried to wait out the heavy rain inside orange-lighted cafés and commuting businessmen and -women decided to forgo an outside lunch break to stay inside their fluorescent offices.
At Titans Tower, the group of teenagers were similarly home-bound, but it was not because of the weather. A book was cracked open in front of them, the open pages written in ancient Sanskrit.
"What does it say?" Aang asked quietly, sitting across from Raven in a meditative pose. Behind him, Sokka and Katara gave each other a look, full of determination and caution. The other Titans were similarly prepared, clustered on the couch or leaning against the windows as the rainstorm battered the glass behind them.
Plan A, part one: use the Avatar State, find Zuko... Part two: talk.
Hopefully, they wouldn't need to use any of the back-up ones.
The goth teen shook her head, and her pointer finger tapped the last line again. "There is no meaning in the sentences, only in the order of the words."
"Weird, but okay," the two heard Sokka whisper under his breath, then Katara shushing him.
Aang and Raven worked to ignore the background noise: the splattering rain, the quiet breathing, the static hum of the overhead lights— it was all fading away. Raven closed her eyes, mumbling the foreign incantation, and he followed her example, slumping into a meditative trance. The watchful crowd quieted even more. Five minutes went by, softened by the monotone repetition. Katara frowned, settling herself next to the young monk, studying his relaxed expression worriedly. Sokka chewed on his bottom lip, shrugging with a grimace when Robin and then Cyborg curiously looked his way.
A heavy silence blanketed the group, Raven and Aang as still as statues on the floor.
It almost seemed like it worked, until Raven sighed, one eye peaking open. Aang's shoulders slumped, his head bowing with shame.
"My chakra's blocked," he admitted to the floor when no one else said anything. "It's not working... I.. I can't go into the Avatar State. I'm sorry."
Raven didn't answer, instead looking to the team of super heroes behind her. Robin uncrossed his arms to offer a simple shrug, Cyborg next to him and nodding supportively. Starfire and Beast Boy looked back at her, waiting respectfully for her decision. She settled back into her relaxed pose. "I can try to use my soul-self projection, but I can't be outside my body for more than five minutes," she warned them. "We might not even be able to find him in that timeframe."
"What can I do?" Aang asked, looking up at her.
"Nothing," she said and began, "Azarath Metrion—"
Aang leaned forward instead, speaking louder than her words, "But you won't even know where to look, or how to talk to him. Let me help, he's my friend!" The monk stared back at her, chewing on the inside of his cheek. Sokka gently put a hand on his shoulder, but he didn't pay him any mind.
Raven's lips thinned, but her voice was flat when she said, "And how can you help me, Avatar Aang?"
"I can...uh.."
"Aang," Katara joined softly, "It's okay. Let her—"
"No!" Aang exploded, standing up abruptly. Starfire made a small, sympathetic sound in the back of her throat. They watched him pace back and forth. "You need me. If you go by yourself, he's not going to trust you."
"Aang," Sokka tried again.
"I need to talk to him," he finished. "I have to."
"He betrayed you," Katara snapped, trying to ignore the airbender's flinch and the way her heart felt squeezed tight in her chest, "Again! You don't owe him anything!"
"Let me try again," Aang pleaded, "I'll get it this time, just like Guru Pathik said, pure cosmic energy, blocked by earthly attachment! I can do that, no problem, easy! I'm the Avatar!"
"You're the Avatar," Sokka repeated evenly, trying to be practical. He was not going to touch the irony of him wanting to talk to Zuko being a direct example of an earthly attachment. "Isn't earthly attachment kinda your thing? To save the world, yadda yadda? How are you supposed to let go of attachment?"
Raven sighed loudly, opening her eyes to glare at the other-worlders. She got to her feet, an impatient look on her face. "Maybe we should do this another time. After you've had the time to talk it over."
"Raven," Starfire said, to no avail, reading something subtle on the other girl's face.
The room settled back into silent as Raven stalked towards the door, tumbling thoughts buried deep, deep, deep in the back of her mind. The door opened with a metallic sheeeek, but before she could take her first step out of the room, Beast Boy asked the group at-large, "What if Raven unlocks the, uh, chalk-ra for you? Maybe it'd trigger the Avatar State."
"How?" the siblings demanded in unison, with very different tones. It didn't matter, because he was already answering with, "She can, like, possess people or get into their heads? I'm not sure how it really works eheh, but she obviously wouldn't do it in a creepy way, cause you're our friends, I mean—"
"Beast Boy," Robin said, and the changeling's nervous rambling quieted.
Raven cringed at the empty corridor, her face scrunching up since no one could see. She whirled around suddenly, her cloak a trail of black behind her. "Beast Boy," she hissed through a scowl as she rejoined the group. It was a dumb idea, the risk would be too high and—
Beast Boy blushed and ducked behind Starfire, hiding behind the taller alien's frame. The Tamaranean looked desperately at Raven with hope, the brightness on her faced mirroring the monk's own naïve optimism. Sokka and Katara looked far less thrilled with the idea of a "possession" than their young Avatar. She understood their concerns wholeheartedly.
"I'm not sure that's a good idea," Robin started to say when Raven only continued to glare sharply around her teammate instead of responding.
"Why not?" Aang demanded and a gust of wind smacked into the floor.
"Aang." Katara looked back at him, her eyes round and blue, and he was reminded of skeletons and ash and the first warm hug he'd had since waking up in a new, broken world.
He slumped, letting the tense anger in his voice dissipate, and he only sounded tired when he finally said, "If it doesn't work, I won't bother you anymore. But if it does work, we can use the Avatar State to find Zuko. We'd have enough time to talk with him and ask him why he—I mean, ask him what happened. I promise." He looked up, making eye contact. Despite Raven's better judgement, she saw an old soul in his young face, gentle but powerful, and she felt herself annoyingly already starting to soften. "Can't we just try, Sifu Raven?"
"...Alright," she sighed, breathing through the start of a headache. ..Sifu Raven. "And don't call me that."
"Alright," he agreed readily, his expression thankful.
They sat back down, their friends and teammates surrounding them. Aang thought of group hugs, and rainbow-colored fire.
"This will only be temporary," Raven cautioned, referring to his locked chakra, "if it even works."
Aang nodded. That was fine. He just needed to talk to Zuko. The rest, it would have to come later. But not right now.
"Be careful," they said.
"We will," they answered.
It felt like it had only been half a second of nothing, and then Raven's eyes burned a pure white, blindingly bright against the dark colors of her outfit and the grey gloom of the room. The book turned a page in an invisible wind, guided by a unseen hand, and new Sanskrit letters were offered up like food for a feast. The Titans and Water Tribe siblings went silent, holding their breath, as they all felt something in the room shift, like a door was opening and letting the cold inside.
With no warning, Aang opened his eyes, but instead of the hazel grey, it was only a blank, fathomless white, shining with the ethereal intensity of a thousand suns.
The Avatar State.
Now, they just had to wait. The group shared a complex glance. Now it was their turn. Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.
The H.I.V.E. Five were preparing for a fight. It wasn't obvious in the usual way: there wasn't a change of armor, a selection of weapons, or even a team meeting. Instead, there was a forced atmosphere of quiet. No video games, no television or movies, no wrestling matches, no target practice, nothing. Just, a tense quiet as the group finished with their leftover chores and waited for their orders.
There could be no failure this time. Jinx understood that deeply, all the way to her bones. This was their only chance, or it'd be the end. Of everything. Slade didn't give second chances.
Their two newest recruits eyed each other, or, well, Zuko sent an obviously worried look at Toph, who then continued to blankly stare across from her, looking somewhere above See-More's shoulder. The H.I.V.E. leader crossed her arms, staring them all down. Jinx didn't actually know if she wanted the two foreigners to come along. She only knew two things right now: Zuko and Toph were adamant on joining them for their "walk around the city," being weirdly clingy all day, and Slade has said he wanted to meet them, and soon.
...He hadn't said they couldn't join them on their mission, in the meantime.
Jinx's neon-pink eyes slid to Toph. The younger girl's hair was in a messy bun, her earth-toned tunic dusty and a little smelly. She was still barefoot, and that was still so weird, her feet had to be cold. Jinx turned to the boy next to her, missing the way Toph's eyes narrowed. Zuko.. wasn't much better. His arms were crossed as his eyes tracked three Billys and one Mammoth hauling some of the crates from the basement into the living room with graceless lumbering. His scar darkened his face, making the loose scowl on his face even more severe looking. He reminded her of someone, she considered, someone who was determined and bold and— honey-gold eyes suddenly locked on to hers, and she felt herself shiver, her mind immediately falling blank.
Danger, her instincts warned, and some part of her eye caught Toph in her periphery too, capturing the undertone of wild energy from the two in front of her.
Jinx smiled. She could work with this.
"Alright, you caught me," Jinx trilled, raising her hands in faux-surrender. "We're not just going for a 'walk," she admitted, finishing with a theatrical display of air-quotes, her eyes keen and sharp as she waited. Kyd was behind her restocking the tea-cabinet, and she heard the rustle of his costume as he also looked over her shoulder for their reaction.
It was slightly disappointing.
"Huh," Toph said, not sounding all that surprised. Zuko only frowned harder, grumbling something under his breath that made Toph smirk. When Jinx scowled at the response, the shorter girl prompted, "Well, where are you going then?"
Kyd huffed a silent laugh, and Jinx gnashed her teeth. No one here was any fun, god!
See-More answered for her, finally finished with folding the laundry into six separate piles, a chore that he should have finished a week ago. He got up from the couch to stand next to her. "A couple places here and there."
"That's not any better?" Toph argued, but there was wry amusement in her voice. See-More considered her and then his eye flicked over to Zuko, then Jinx.
Jinx made her decision. "We're splitting up. Going to the Bay Bridge, maybe the zoo, a park," she shrugged, and it was now or never. "Want to come?"
"Look, if you pansies are going to make trouble," Toph answered with her usual amount of grace, unseeing to the way the H.I.V.E. tensed at being called out, "...Then you can count me in. I am ready to break some things."
Jinx wrinkled her nose, pulling her eyes away from Zuko to wave a polished hand in Toph's direction. "Look, it could be dangerous," she felt obligated to say, not sure how she felt about the blind girl coming. She wasn't entirely against it, but it wasn't exactly responsible and she was trying to be a little bit better. "You could get—"
See-More, who had been approaching her silently on the right to make a point, and Kyd, who was on the left and not actually trying to start anything but was just unluckily passing through right at this moment, suddenly found themselves butting heads. Small hands gripped the skin-tight suit, wrinkling the eye logo, and then with unseen force, See-More went flying head-first into the floor. Kyd blinked wide red eyes, and slowly raised his hands above his head, a (now-crumbled) empty box of tea falling from his hand.
Jinx belatedly remembered to close her mouth. Toph smirked like she could see the chaos around her anyway, and Zuko just looked done with everything.
"Well," Jinx said, gathering herself. That had been pretty cool, damn it. Fine. "You coming or not?"
"Are you looking for Aang?" Zuko asked, cutting through Toph's enthusiastic response. Like it was planned, Gizmo then walked into the room, holding the old-fashioned staff in front of him and a disgusted look on his face. So, nothing unusual there. Zuko brightened, feeling justified as he gestured to his grand entrance, "The person who owns the staff that you stole. Our missing friend."
"That Slade stole," Jinx corrected automatically, not sure why the distinction even really mattered but saying it anyway, "He just gave it to us for safe keeping."
"Yeah," Gizmo added, an intense look on his face as he considered the engravings on the side, holding it out in front of himself with a studious eye. "I'm a tech genius."
"See," Jinx started to say, warming to the idea.
"But even I don't know why he gave me this piece of hillbilly, old-school, frumpish pile of dog-breath. It's as useless and uninteresting as nature documentaries!"
"See," Zuko said, because he could.
"Sure, we can look for your friend," Jinx grit out, snagging the staff from the tiny villain and resisting the urge to hit him with it as he made his way over to join a bruised See-More and a loitering Billy who was very obviously avoiding his chore of taking out the trash. "Why not?"
Toph nodded, and Zuko blinked back her, surprised, and then Jinx wondered if she was meant to say no. Well, whatever. They probably wouldn't run into their weird friend today anyway, not with everything that they had to do.
...Maybe this was a bad idea. Luck was never really her strong suit, and with Slade, you always needed a little luck or...
"Hey," Toph said, standing next to her, and how had she not noticed the other girl come closer until they were shoulder to shoulder, "You good?"
Jinx snarled, stepping away and feeling like her heart was beating too fast for such a dumb question. Of course she was good, she wasn't afraid of anything, much less... oh. No, they'd be fine, the Titans were barely a threat anyway. They wouldn't lose, they couldn't. Jinx pulled a smile to say with fake cheer, "Of course," and then belatedly realized the show was naught when Toph only blinked her foggy jade-green eyes back at her. Even though it couldn't be, it somehow still felt mocking.
"If you say so," Toph said easily enough, shrugging. She turned to face about the direction where Zuko was standing, looking closed-off and grumpy and very clearly listening to them talk. "...Thanks for the invitation."
Jinx didn't know what to do with this new atmosphere, so she turned her back on the pre-teen, saying roughly over her shoulder, "Just don't get in my way."
"Oh, I won't," the girl promised, full of unwavering confidence.
Though Jinx would rather die than admit it, the smile on her lips was more fond than sneering. She erased all emotions on her face when she stood at the base of the couch, her team filling into the living room, slowly but surely. It was almost time. Gizmo, Mammoth, See-More, Billy, Kyd. Zuko, Toph. Alright.
"Today we complete our job," Jinx stated, looking to each and every one of them. "Bay Bridge, Jump City Zoo, Central Park, Jump City Bank. Take your pick."
"What are we doing there?" Toph asked, cracking her knuckles. Zuko only watched her, an intent look on his face.
"Having some fun," she answered, smiling like a cheshire cat. "And making some trouble."
The group picked out their spots. Zuko glanced at the top of Toph's head, and she tilted her head back at him. To Jinx's surprise, the two decided to split up, one joining her and the other joining the Billys. She didn't know what made them pick each location, and she didn't care. As long as they were as good as Slade seemed to think, they could tag along with any of them.
The rain outside was only a drizzle now, so Jinx nodded to her team, blowing a damp strand of hair out of her eyes. The street's CCTV camera blinked leisurely in the corner of her eye. "Alright," she commanded, feeling pink and powerful, "H.I.V.E. Five, let's go live."
This was going to be good.
This was weird.
Aang didn't know how he felt about another voice in his head, poking at cloudy memories of Monk Gyatso, custard-filled fruit pies, endless skies of blue-blue-blue—the blue of Katara's eyes, as vast and never-ending as the ocean—the ocean filled with battleships and war-torn soldiers, bloody and broken and on fire—the fire from Sozin's comet, burning the Temples and returning soon, too soon—
"Aang," the foreign voice said, and the neutral tone was not enough to hide the slight trill of panic. "Be calm."
Calm.
Like Sokka sharpening his boomerang around the campfire, making steady sheeeck, sheeeck, sheecks. Like Katara making dinner and laughing, bubbly and bright, at Momo making himself a nest on Toph's head. Like Toph grumbling about it, but letting him do it anyway, sinking into the soft fur behind her. Like Appa munching on hay and snuffling a deep, low laugh at their young antics. Like Zuko, standing a little ways off, his face soft and gentle, holding a rainbow in his palms that was somehow brighter and warmer than the campfire. Like Aang, beckoning them all together, giggling and carefree and at peace.
"Good," Raven spoke, an untethered voice in his head. "Now let go."
Aang knew it was coming, hearing Guru Pathik say from somewhere behind him, let all of those attachments go, let them flow down the river, forgotten, but some part of him still rebelled, clinging tighter to the family he had only just recently made. How could he forget them? He needed them.
"You need to let go, Avatar Aang," she repeated, firmer. "It might feel like you need them, but this isn't a question of need, it's of want."
"Well, maybe I want them then!" he argued, feeling a sting on the crown of his head. "They're my family."
"You are powerful, you are compassionate," she said, unperturbed, "You are separate and whole. Let them be separate and whole. Let go."
Skeletons on the ground, dusty and choking on ash, burning, burning, burning— he's already lost so much, why did he have to let go of this too? Aang held them tighter, close to his chest and his heart and his soul. It was getting harder and harder to breathe.
Raven hesitated, and her voice was gentler this time, "By letting go, it does not mean you cannot hold someone close ever again. Believe you are strong enough to carry on if and when things change. Believe in them."
Believe in them.
"If I squeeze too tight," Aang allowed after a pause, sitting with the remnants of his unprocessed grief, his voice choked with tears but coming out steady anyway, "We'll suffocate."
"Let go," Raven repeated, slow and kind, "for just right now."
So Aang let the memory catch on a breeze, twirling through the trees, splashed by the rivers, warmed by the sun, and then, at last, grounded by the stones. Let go, for just right now, so he did. And the Spirit World embraced him like greeting a long-lost friend, and then all he knew was white—
Raven made a noise that might have been a sigh of relief. Aang didn't know, because all he felt right now was love, full and bubbling and strong. His airbender family were a part of him, invisible but for the way the air felt kind and familiar around him. His new family were another part of him, colorful and determined and steady on his shoulder, present and reliable.
He could find Zuko now. He could talk to him. He could bring him back to them.
As they had planned, Raven pulled free her memory of Zuko as well, strengthening the red-ribboned tether with another layer to help their astral projections find the lost prince. Her thoughts pulled them down, shifting to the left from where their ghostly forms were turned.
Zuko, Aang thought with unprecedented focus, louder and stronger than even Raven's thoughts could be, Zuko.
Like a shooting star on the left, and like a black-feathered raven on the right, the two shot free from their bodies, bursting through the walls of the Tower like beings made of pure cosmic energy.
It went like this:
Their spiritual projections brightened the drab rainstorm like dashes of lightening, racing over Jump City with the speed of light. They sped over the Bay Bridge, the water a murky blue, and then city streets were an empty maze of puddles and misty streetlights below them.
Next to a bank, stood two figures cloaked from the rain, poorly hidden and seemingly up to no good. The taller one flinched and turned, raising his eyes to the sky.
Aang's focus weakened in surprise, his soul reverberating with recognition and hope—and with that hesitation, Raven felt herself slipping, a pull on her back beckoning her to return—so she forced herself to stay, throwing her concentration at the link, thinking Zuko with all the power inside her, reaching into her core and holding it there.
—and instead of landing in front of the pair, her soul projection jerked, like hands grabbing the hood of her robe and— yanking!—
—before she could even process the change, Raven and Aang were pulled like beams of light crossing the event horizon in a black hole, throwing them back over the Bay and over and over and over—
"How do we stop?" she heard Aang shout in her mind.
They were still hurtling through the air, the mountainside in the distance getting closer and closer and closer—
Zuko, she thought one last time in a panic, hoping the control would send them back to the city.
"Raven!" Aang yelled.
The rocks of the mountain were jagged and brown and she instinctively held her breath as they were flung at the rocks like waves crashing in a storm. "Ahhhhhhh," she heard, and the sound mixed and twisted into her own voice as well.
The impact was sudden. She felt her connection break, like a string pulled too tight. And then she felt— nothing.
It went like this:
Aang entered the Avatar State across from Raven, the pair matching with glowy white eyes and empty, blank expressions. Lightening struck, blinding the the group in the Tower, and in that sudden flash, it almost seemed like feathery dark wings filled the space, outlined by pale spiritual light.
Katara smiled at Sokka, the worry buried under pride.
Sokka smiled back.
And then the Tower alarms went off. The moving pictures burst onto the screen with the sudden noise, pulling up locations titled Jump City Zoo, Central Park, Jump City Bank, and Bay Bridge.
"The H.I.V.E.," Robin growled, already in front of the machine, making a fist and hitting the flat surface of the console.
Cyborg narrowed his eyes, glancing at the prone forms on the Tower floor. "The timing seems a little too fortuitous."
"We don't have a choice," their leader growled, a snarl in his voice. There were people running screaming, tripping over each other and falling, shouting as violent chaos exploded around them. Cars were piled into a tower, traffic at a standstill as Mammoth slammed another crack into the asphalt. On another screen, a family was trying to climb a tree as a lion passed in front of the camera, growling lowly.
"We have to split up," Robin commanded. There were four of them and four locations.
"We'll stay here," Katara volunteered immediately, her hand on the lid of her water skin. Sokka nodded silently by her side, the stolen (re-claimed) boomerang in his hand. "We'll protect Aang and Raven."
"This is a trap," Robin said, but knowing they didn't have a choice but to spring it.
"We know," Sokka answered. "We'll be prepared."
Cyborg nodded. "The Tower's under lockdown. Don't let anyone but us inside."
The siblings nodded.
Beast Boy and Starfire shared a look.
"We can handle ourselves," Katara said pointedly, "And I won't let anyone hurt my friends."
They shared the sentiment. As the Titans split up, directed to their location with a fast-paced rundown of the villains and estimated damages, Katara and Sokka settled themselves for their own battle.
They were not going to let anyone get hurt this time.
It went like this:
The storm was getting worse. What had started out as a drizzle was now a heavy downpour, with thunder loud in his ear and lightening bright in his eyes. Zuko squinted through the storm, wishing the second-hand raincoat didn't feel so sticky. He grumbled, miserable.
Jinx didn't seem to care, staring up at the bright letters of the BANK with glee.
Zuko knew why she was here, and he was no longer confident in their plan to find Aang this way. This is why Uncle says he needs to think things through. He sucks at this.
Suddenly, lightening sent jagged branches through the sky, smelling like ozone and... peaches? What? When there was no following sound of thunder, Zuko braced himself for the rain getting into his eyes. He looked up.
Like a ghostly mirage, two spirits stared back at him, one black and one white and both powerful.
And then in the blink of an eye, they were gone.
Aang, Zuko thought nonsensically, his mind whirling. Was that Aang? What was he doing, how was he doing that—?
"Showtime," Jinx said, and then the storefront exploded in a ribbon of pink light. Someone screamed. Zuko felt like joining them.
{◐...◑}
Author's Note: Hope you liked it!
UPDATE: this was re-written 7/10/23.