Avatar: The Red Vestige
Book one: Fire
Chapter one: Vaatu Returns
"There is energy all around us. The energy is both Yin and Yang; Positive energy and Negative energy. Separating these energies creates an imbalance. The energy wants to restore balance, and in a moment, the Positive and Negative energies come crashing back together." - Iroh
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"…What time is it?" The primordial spirit rumbled drearily. Its small fragile form laid in the cavity of a gnarled tree; its presence no greater than a threadbare cloth. "How long has it been since I last had cognizance enough to consider my circumstances?"
Day or Night, Winter or Spring, Time has worn it all down, slipping away before me as sands of the hourglass, impossible to tell one grain from another.
Time… I had long since thought myself indifferent to its passing. I lived ten thousand lifetimes before the seasons were first counted, concerning myself only with my struggle against Raava. But now she has trapped me here in the Tree of Time, what irony… the spirit thought derisively to himself. The place of my birth, where Raava first sprung out of me like a weed, a tumor. And now that very place has become my prison where she has left me here to shrivel away.
My only recourse is to fester, continually rehearsing in my mind these causes of my vitriol as I toil to maintain some semblance of sanity; fostering the sense of hatred that gives me strength in preparation for our next confrontation.
But with nothing to occupy myself, I have no way to resist the effects of the tree as it stretches out these endless days into eternities. If I could not sense harmonic convergence crawling ever nearer, I'd have thought that millions of years had passed me by here; I would have long since surrendered my consciousness to the rapids of time, drowsed insensate by its monotonous eroding passage. I scorn such a notion: to think that I, the great spirit, ruler of this discordant world, would allow Raava to vanquish me completely, how absurd. I must continue to rein in my faculties if I wish to pose any chance of overcoming Raava when next we meet. But harmonic convergence is still so hopelessly distant, and as the eternities pass, I find the task becoming more and more impossible. As Raava's power and influence waxes, and mine ever wanes, I am being reduced to a whisper in the wind, teetering on the precipice of my essence being unwound and dispersed completely...
"And yet, somehow… I rouse." Vaatu was a small spirit, no larger than a handkerchief. Black in color with a red design on his belly, he was kite shaped in appearance, flat, thin, and flexible. Flitting and twisting through the air like a jellymanta ray, Vaatu rose from his resting place at the bottom of the hollow trunk to peer out of a gap in the tree of time. His only window to the outside world, blocked by an impassable energy field.
"What has happened? I have not felt this awake or energetic for centuries. Harmonic convergence is still well over a century away, it is still a few decades too early for Raava and I to begin coming back into equilibrium." Unless… could Raava be weakening? With how weak I am she must be near the height of her power, I can't imagine what would require her to expend so much energy while in such a state.
But regardless of how it is happening, I must make use of this opportunity. Even when I was at the peak of my strength at the last harmonic convergence, and Raava was at her weakest, I was still defeated by the combination of her power with the human bearing the gifts of the lion turtles. Not only that, but I was also unable to destroy this energy field trapping me here despite my strength at the time. Therefore, I must use this newfound power to find another way to escape and defeat her, before the harmonic convergence.
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Meanwhile, unbeknownst to Vaatu, for several years now Avatar Aang had been frozen in an iceberg submerged in the south pole.
Urrrr… hah! Raava strained. She had never animated her host in the avatar state for this long before. I'm so sorry Aang. She thought to herself, even though she knew Aang's body was comatose and thus couldn't hear her speaking to him from the deepest part of himself.. I'm doing my best to ensure our survival while we're trapped here. At least our body is preserved by the ice, but even still, I'm not sure how many more years before I can no longer preserve us alive. I'll keep it up for as long as I can no matter how much I have to strain my power to do so, I just hope we'll be freed from here soon,
At the same time, the fire nation was wreaking havoc upon the world, spreading the very war and chaos that gave Vaatu new strength with each derisive word.
ー火 nearly a century later 火ー
"I have nearly outgrown my prison," Vaatu observed, having multiplied in size many times over during the years where his power increased and Raava's diminished. "We should be at about equilibrium now, and far ahead of harmonic convergence as well."
It was then that a sudden jolt of energy speared through Vaatu, causing him to grow until his sides were squeezed against the trunk of the tree of time. "Raava released a massive spike of pent up energy just now. But what could be the cause?"
All of a sudden, a beam of pale blue light pierced the sky and settled upon the southern boundary of the arena for harmonic convergence. When it touched down, it set off a shockwave that caused the energy field imprisoning Vaatu to flicker momentarily.
Vaatu, his form practically spilling out of the tree already due to the sudden growth spurt, tried desperately to push his way out, however, there was only small chink in the field whereby a single thin tendril was able to squeeze through before the energy field re-stabilized around Vaatu, cutting off the tendril.
The tendril quickly morphed into a miniscule version of Vaatu, much akin to how he looked back when he was small enough to fit in a tea kettle.
"What!? Raava's spirit portal at the south pole has somehow been opened. Quickly! I must make my way through before the portal closes and this fragment of myself loses its connection to me and dissipates."
And with that, Vaatu flew through the portal to the human world.
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A/N: Well, that's the first chapter of my newest story, it's a short chapter but that's because it's really more of a prologue, the next chapter will be longer and will explain the rest of the premise. And don't worry, this doesn't mean I have abandoned my other projects (check those out on my author page if you haven't read them yet).
So, what do you think? The first chapter is important in gauging what the audience reaction to a story is, so I want to hear all of your feedback and ideas.