Book one: Fire

Chapter 3: The Red Vestige

When one door closes, another opens. — Alexander Graham Bell.

ー火ー

Vaatu pushed his lithe form through the currents of surging white energy, gliding through it like a kite as he pierced the veil between the spirit and physical worlds. But before he could fully emerge, he saw the gate ahead shimmer and dim: the last rays of his salvation scattering across the waves of space like setting sun scintillates across the distant sea.

He breached it! And thought he could feel the brisk air, but just as quickly the world became hazy and muffled around him.

"…That light came from an incredibly powerful source, it has to be him…"

"…We've been down this way before… before… before…"

The last word echoed as Vaatu was pulled and stretched along the fabric of space, his essence suffocating. He desperately pushed, writhed, slithered…

"HUUGHH" he gasped, emerging from a cloud, the endless white giving way to the brilliant blue of the sky and ocean, revealing to him that he had arrived safely in the physical world.

"My connection is all but severed. I must tether myself quickly lest this part of myself unravel, and I flounder and crash like a kite with its string cut."

He looked around, seeing nothing but ocean out to the horizon in every direction, with the sole exception being a small island directly below him, vacant except for a small blue temple on a grassy knoll.

"But where am I? This is not the South Pole, nor the North." He stretched out his senses across the planet long streams of energy being pulled to and from the planet's poles. "Interesting. This is a spiritual nexus, but neither a positive pole like the north nor a negative pole like the south. I must have been able to breach the current here and escape because this place is in equilibrium, the place where the flow slows, stops, and reverses course. That must mean I'm on the equator. But where to go? Let's see…my best bet would be a lion turtle city."

Hmmm, strange, I can only sense one lion turtle and it's far to the northwest. But I have no other options and no time left to keep thinking.

ー火ー

It had become clear to Vaatu that he would not make it to the lion turtle city before this frail portion of his essence dispersed, his only hope for freedom going with it. Even now he could feel it. He had so much further yet to go, and yet so little time remaining. He needed to find a way to anchor and stabilize himself quickly, and he was running out of options.

At this rate the only way to survive will be to risk merging with a human avatar like Raava did at the last harmonic convergence. Vaatu thought with a shudder as he considered the consequences of having to resort to that. With my current state, and how unlikely it is that I'll find a worthy host, such a thing will almost surely fail, and I will die, and even in the case I succeed, the procedure will be permanent. However, I have little choice at this moment, and even in the worst case, it is no matter if I lose this small portion of my power to a human if it means leaving a vestige of myself in this realm. Even still, I would rather find some other way if possible.

And so Vaatu continued flying over the endless ocean towards a destination he knew he wouldn't be able to reach in time. Desperation quickly began to take hold of his mind. Scarcely half an hour remained before he would be undone. Some time ago he had spotted the coasts of some islands, and now he deeply regretted not searching those islands for a human to possess. Indeed, it took all his determination to not turn back and try to reach those islands again, but it had already been hours since he had last seen one, and logically he knew that turning back now would be an even surer death sentence. His only chance now was to keep moving forward and hope another solution would present itself.

And then he saw it: the sun breaking through the clouds illuminated another island just up ahead, and upon its beach was a boy sitting on a rock and reading a book; his salvation.

"Huuumaaan!" he called out, his form fluttering down to meet the boy. "Please, you must save me!" Vaatu didn't care how much he needed to plead and posture, he would use this human in the end, one way or another.

Soru had to hide his momentary shock at coming across what could only be a spirit. Unsure how to act because of his limited knowledge of spirits. Soru opted to feel things out and reserve judgement for now.

"Help you? You're a spirit, right; who are you? How could I help you?"

Vaatu came face to face with the human, hovering around him, as the human constantly turned to keep an eye on him as he circled the boy's head. Hmm… He seems hale enough for my purposes, and with sufficient vim and vigor that I can convince him to take up my cause.

"I am Vaatu, the great spirit, rightful ruler of the spirit world. And you, human, are my only hope, sent here by fate to aid me. Surely, you are one noble and merciful; pray, tell me thy name, oh you chosen by fate, that I may honor and reward you."

That… was more than Soru was expecting. Still, he was wary. Soru knew when someone was selling something, and Vaatu's words were setting off alarm bells in his head. He also knew not to reveal his hand or buy in so hastily, instead he'd lure the spirit in and find out what he was really after.

"My name is Soru, but you didn't answer my question: Why would a great spirit like you need help from someone like me?"

"Soru, a fine name for a human. As for how I came to be at your mercy, allow me to tell you my tale of woe. What you see before you is but a small shred of my essence that has escaped into the physical world. The rest of me is in the spirit world where for ten thousand years I have lain in bondage, captive to the one who seeks the subjugation of all things."

"So you want me to journey into the spirit world and free you?" And give the spirits free reign to come into the physical world? Soru added in his head. Fat chance of that.

In the Fire Nation, they were taught about the tyranny of the spirits over humanity. The Air Nomads were the prime example: a people who completely submitted to the whims of the spirits, they took children from their parents, lived restricted lives with no individuality, disfellowed themselves from society, and this they called freedom, because they had no way of ever knowing what real freedom truly was. The Avatar was the symbol and keeper of this spiritual oppression, keeping the nations separate, confined, and beholden to the will of the spirits. He was the only thing stopping Sozin from liberating the world and uniting the nations so that humanity could forge a path of their own. The last Avatar had been Fire Nation, otherwise Fire Lord Sozin probably would have become a martyr for the Trailblazing dream––and nearly did on one occasion. But the next Avatar would be raised an Air Nomad, and the tyranny would likely only become worse when they rose to power. That was why Sozin started the war with them, using Sozin's comet to take out the Air Temples in one fell swoop before he brought his ambitions to the other nations. It was drastic, but necessary. There was no place in the new world for them; you could not free prisoners who had become their own jailors. The Trailblazing dream would never take root so long as the influence of the spirits was left unchecked.

All this to say that Soru wasn't about to let some conniving spirit trick him into undoing all of that and allow spirits to rule over them once again, no matter how much Vaatu begged him.

But Vaatu didn't beg. And Soru was caught quite off guard by what happened next.

"You? Journey into the spirit world to free me?" Vaatu chided, a slight mocking lilt entering into his chortle. "Is such a thing even possible? You are not spirit touched, and even your chi lies dormant, how could you travel into the spirit world?"

"Huh? I thought you were going to take me there, or show me how."

"Child, if I had the power to traverse the bounds between the material and spirit worlds, I would have already freed myself long ago. And even if I could show you a way to do it yourself, I have not the time. I am quickly weakening; in only a few minutes this piece of me will unravel and there will be no trace of me left in the physical world to guide you." Vaatu stated severely, bearing down on Soru as he did so.

Soru didn't back down, afterall, it was rather difficult to be intimidated by a spirit the size of a napkin. "Well if you can't even do that, then how exactly was I supposed to help you? And what do you mean by 'spirit touched'? Are you saying that I could travel to the spirit world if I was one of these spirit touched people? Someone like the Avatar? Sure, they could do it, but they've been gone for a hundred years."

"An avatar? Avatar of what?" Vaatu repeated, his ire momentarily put on hold due to confusion. "Regardless, yes, if you were such a being then perhaps you could enter into the spirit world, but you aren't, so-."

"Woah, hold on! You're saying you don't know who the Avatar is?"

"As I said, I have been imprisoned for ten thousand years, it seems the physical world has changed much in that time."

"Wow, okay then… You've really never heard of the Avatar before? You know, the great bridge between the physical and spirit worlds, master of the four elements, that Avatar?"

Vaatu was quickly becoming frustrated with this human's inability to let him speak. Insolent worm, so ignorant and yet he presumes to know of that which he speaks. There's only one bridge between the physical and spirit worlds, and it only forms during harmonic con-

"Wait!" Vaatu suddenly stopped his seething and focused on the young boy intently, hovering inches from his face. "You mean to tell me that there is a spirit touched human avatar who can bridge the two worlds and is master of four elements. By this you mean he has power over fire, air, water, and earth, these four elements!?"

"Uh, yeah, that's pretty common knowledge."

Vaatu felt the tumults of ecstasy begin to swell up within him at unexpectedly uncovering this useful information "And you say this avatar has been gone for an hundred years? Do tell, what has happened to him?" To think that for all that time Wan was still serving as Raava's avatar. To be joined to a human for ten thousand years, I can scarcely imagine the incredible power they must have obtained, and yet for a century they've disappeared? Could it truly be, the only obstacle to my reign, no longer present to pester me?

"Not sure why you've taken this sudden interest, but alright. My nation, the Fire Nation, we killed him during Sozin's Comet, that's what started the war that's been going on for the last hundred years."

"Hmm, you must mean the Great Fire Comet. Yes, that sounds about right, I remember it was not too long after the last time it appeared. You say your people killed him? Now why would you do that?"

"Because the Avatar prevented us from uniting the nations, they wanted us to remain separate to maintain the spiritual balance of the world."

Vaatu couldn't stop himself belting out a spiel of derisive laughter. He couldn't believe his good fortune. It would be all too easy to get the human to play right into his hands. "So this avatar is your enemy then?"

"That's right…" Soru furrowed his brow in confusion. Why did Vaatu seem so pleased by this? Wasn't the Avatar supposed to be the champion of the spirits?

"Then I suppose I owe you a greater debt than I thought, Soru. You see, I am the spirit of freedom, potential, change, and energy, I am the source of all things before they were named, the primordial font of the elements before they were separated, the rightful ruler of the spirits. This avatar you speak of is the avatar of the spirit Raava. Raava is my other half, I am her opposite, the yin to her yang. She is the spirit of separation and stagnation, she would subjugate all things to her order, and she is the one that has restrained me for ten thousand years, and tormented me for another ten thousand years before that–"

Soru went slack jawed at the revelation. In hindsight it made perfect sense. Of course there would be spirits who weren't friendly with the Avatar. Wasn't fighting angry spirits one of the Avatar's jobs? The Avatar was also all about maintaining the natural balance of the world, but how is one person imposing their will on the whole world balanced? Wouldn't there need to be an equal and opposite force in opposition to the Avatar in order to balance things out? What value is there to good if there is no contrast of evil to contextualize it and give it meaning? Well apparently there was something out there to oppose the Avatar's evil, they had just locked him away for ten thousand years. But there would be time to think about that later. For now, Soru schooled his shocked expression and turned his attention back to what Vaatu was saying.

"–But I cannot be restrained for long, it is against my very nature. And soon, I will need to battle Raava again for the fate of this world. Your people were right to oppose her avatar, because of your actions, Raava has weakened enough for me to escape to here. This is why I must leave a vestige of myself behind in this world, lest I squander this opportunity you've afforded me. If I do not, I will remain helpless in her prison, and she will surely defeat me again, and you will be at her mercy for another ten thousand years."

"Wait, I thought the Avatar was dead, you're saying they're still around?"

"I know not what became of her avatar, but Raava certainly still remains in this realm. If she had been vanquished then my prison would have been undone. We are connected you see, and as I weaken she gains strength. And so long as we both live our conflict continues, and your world remains at risk. She will come for vengeance against the ones who opposed her avatar an hundred years ago, your people will suffer her wrath if we can not stop her."

Soru could barely gulp down the heavy lump that had formed in his throat, and despite being in the warm evening sun, the sweat on his brow was cold and clammy. "We?" He asked fearfully, voice trembling. "Wh-what could we possibly do against a spirit with the power of the Avatar? You're going to unravel in a few minutes, and I'm not even a bender. You said it yourself, there's no way someone like me could enter the spirit world to save you. I'm sorry, but there's nothing I can do to help you, it's hopeless," Soru replied in despair, slowly shaking his head. He couldn't bear to face the grim news that Vaatu heralded to him, and instead turned his back to the ocean and the wayward spirit that it had sent his way, eyes glued to the gritty sand between his toes.

"Yes, it is hopeless…" Vaatu whispered mournfully as he floated over Soru's shoulder to be in front of the boy again. "Unless you become my avatar, that is."

Soru, snapped his head back up to look at the wayward spirit. The tears that had been stoically withheld now brimming in his eyes. "You… you can make me a bender?"

"Yes. I can give you all the powers held by Raava's avatar. And all I ask in exchange is that you shelter my spirit within you, protect my essence from scattering, and help me to regain my strength. Finish what your ancestors started a century ago, Soru. Become the hero you were destined to be. And together we will defeat Raava and win this war for your people."

"Hang on, this is all a little much to take in all of a sudden. You're saying I have to leave home, travel the world, and master the elements all while searching for a powerful spirit to slay?"

"I'm afraid there is no time left to reflect, we must fuse now while I can still maintain this corporeal form. I warn you, this will be painful, now prepare yoursel-"

"Woah, woah, woah, hold up, I'm not ready for something like that. What is this fusing thing even like?"

Vaatu seethed internally at having to coax this human into submitting. But what choice did he have? Time was running perilously short. Too short for him to search for another human on this island. He had no choice but to be transparent and diplomatic.

"Spirits possess the ability to overshadow and possess a human for a few moments, possess them longer than that and it will spell death for the human, and perhaps the spirit as well."

"I could die from this! You didn't think to mention that earlier?"

"Human, the fate of the world for the next ten thousand years is at stake!" Vaatu shouted. "If I do not stop Raava now I may never gain the opportunity again! Time is short, and I will not suffer your resistance any further!"

Soru flinched and took a step back, but remained silent, trusting the time honored negotiation technique of letting the other party talk themselves down.

Vaatu heaved a sigh as he regained composure. "Normally I would condition you to handle my power, but circumstances are unkind, and I need your cooperation for this to have any true chance of succeeding. If you reject me and resist my possession then we will both almost certainly die. When we merge, your body will be transfigured to accommodate my essence, this process will not be pleasant, and the agony will only increase the longer we are joined. But once we start we cannot separate until the process is either complete or we are dead. You will have to shelter and abide my essence until I unravel. If you bear me well, then your body may absorb the vestiges of my spirit and you will gain my power. If we start the process now, it will only take several minutes."

"Only several straight minutes of pure agony!? I'm not sure I can handle something like that, Vaatu. What if I give out in the middle of things?"

"YOU MUSTN'T DO THAT!" Vaatu commanded, his diamond shaped eye glowing as his voice fulminated with primordial thunder.

But Soru detected the slightest note of fear beneath it.

"If you expel me from your body at that point then we will both be immediately undone, your soul will not even join with the spirit world, you will simply cease to be: the last waning moment of your conscience trapped in that ever expanding instant of excruciation!" oh, Soru thought. That would be bad…

Vaatu continued, "Even still, waiting is not an option. The longer we are joined the greater the chances of success and the more of my power and essence you will absorb. My power is diminishing by the moment as my essence disperses. Yes, the process will be shorter and less painful but more dangerous as well. Every second we wait draws us closer to our deaths. We must begin the possession NOW!"

"No!" Soru suddenly shouted, unable to bear the anxiety any longer. His legs shook, but he somehow held his ground. "I–... I'm sorry but I just can't do it. I'll mess it up, I just know it. The thought of even trying terrifies me so much I can barely stand. I'm not some noble hero, I wasn't born for greatness; I'm not even sure if I was born for anything! I can't do these things you're asking of me. I can't master the elements, I can't slay spirits, I can't even hit a bird. I'm sorry but you've got the wrong guy, I can't help you."

Vaatu's voice became dangerously low, a false calm that belied the seething rage that boiled beneath the surface. "Human, I have waited all too long to come all this way for nothing. I will not allow Raava to prevail over me again. If you will not listen to prize then you will listen to reprisal, if you will not bear my power, then you will suffer it. I will leave a vestige of myself in this world whether you cooperate with me or not. If you will not invite my possession then I will force it upon you. Even if it only lasts a few moments, I will sear my brand upon your flesh before you are able to reject me. Even if you manage to survive, you will be left hideously disfigured and crippled, bearing my mark for the rest of your miserable life. Doubt me not, for I have no qualms with destroying a useless human life if it means liberating the world from its shackles. So what shall it be, Soru. Are you with me, or against me?"

Soru quickly glanced behind him and contemplated running, but something told him there was no chance of escaping the spirit. Is this really how it ends for me? A blazin' kite is the thing that does me in? Just how pathetic am I?Just a few moments ago I was wishing that fate had something bigger in store for me, I told professor Keizai that I wanted to make a real difference, wanted to help win the war, do something more meaningful with my life than just be some merchandising peasant, proving that even a peasant could blaze their own trial like Sozin taught, I wanted to bring that revolution to the world.

Well, careful what you wish for. The spirit that represents everything I believe in shows up on my doorstep and offers me everything I've ever wanted and I'm too much of a coward to even try. And yet I'm still just going to die anyway? Maybe this is what cowards like me deserve.

The words of his classmates echoed through his head:

'his father was some peasant turned traitor. And the apple never falls far from the tree, you know'

'He'll never be anything more than some low-born trash.'

No. Soru thought decisively as he clenched his fist, finding a newfound sense of resolve. Say what you want about me, maybe I really am cut from that same cloth. But there's more to my path than where it starts. I'm the one who decides which direction I take. Not the spirits, not my father, and sure as sunrise not those jerks. I'm not about to let some spoiled rich kids hold up my death as proof of their self-important hippo-bull crap. My death isn't going to become some blasted statistic, I refuse to be just another example of a peasant being toyed with by the spirits.

I can't help how I was born, but I do decide how I die, and I'm not going out in anything other than a blaze of glory. Not as a victim of my fate, but as its author. If both forks in this road lead to death, then I just blaze a new trail.

Only problem is, Soru had no idea how he was supposed to turn this hopeless situation around. Still, there was one thing he was good at that. He just hoped it would be enough, he didn't have much else to fall back on.

"Wait!" Soru yelled as the crest on Vaatu's chest began to glow red with spiritual energy, and surprisingly, the spirit complied. "Let's make a bargain," Soru declared.

"A bargain?"

"Yeah, you know, like a transaction, a deal or trade."

"I know what a bargain is, child, what confounds me is what a mere human could possibly offer to one such as I."

"I'll become your avatar, but on one condition: before I help you defeat Raava, you have to help me win the war."

"Imputent slime!" Vaatu roared. "You really think your silly centennial war can compare to the importance of my millenial conflict with Raava? Have you forgotten the being with which you speak? Why should I give even a moment of consideration for your short-sighted desires?

Soru paused to think about how he wanted to word this. Being educated in the art of trade was one thing, convincing a primordial spirit to accept his offer was quite another. Of course with how impatient Vaatu was getting, Soru didn't exactly have much time to think, so he'd have to improvise pretty heavily.

"You want the union to succeed, don't you? How do you expect me to bear the pain if I don't have any motivation to do so? I need you to give me something to fight for, the determination to see this through. And if our wills aren't united by a common cause, then how do you expect our spirits to merge? Besides, if we go after Raava right away, then we'll almost surely lose. Think of this as a way to prepare and gain combat experience, we're going to be traveling the world to master the elements anyway. And it's not like you would have anything better to do, the Avatar's been gone for a hundred years and we don't even know where to look, I've never left the Fire Nation and you've been stuck in the spirit world for the last ten thousand years. Plus, if we become war heroes, then we'll have the support of the entire Fire Nation, and with the war over, our whole military force will be free to help us defeat the Avatar."

Vaatu ruminated upon Soru's words. He had raised a fair point: Raava and Wan had had ten thousand years to advance their powers. It would not do to engage them hastily and risk squandering his one opportunity to defeat them. His soon to be avatar was correct in his evaluation. With Raava having disappeared for a century, it really did present the ideal situation for him to rebuild his strength…

"You know I'm right." Soru realized upon seeing Vaatu's hesitation. Causing the spirit to turn to face him, irritation practically spilling off his lithe form in waves. Soru's once anxious expression now slowly gave way to a cocky smirk, his confidence––and Vaatu's ire––growing with every word he said. "Because you don't have a choice. You're the one who has to worry about dying, not me. You're in no position to make demands, but I am. And… you already know that, don't you? What will it be Vaatu? Are you going to get an avatar, or are you going back to your miserable life in prison? You said it yourself: I'm your 'only hope.'"

Vaatu could barely restrain himself from lashing out at Soru, he should eviscerate this human for his gall, but he had not the strength to do it, and as loath as he was to admit it, he couldn't afford to surrender this opportunity. "Fine, have it your way human, there is no time to argue. Are you ready to begin?"

Soru gave a curt nod as steeled himself for what was to come.

Vaatu flew into Soru's chest, exposed by the open folds of his haori robe. Red spiritual energy enveloping the youth. Soru immediately let out a ghastly wheeze at the shock, like a man trying to fruitlessly trying to bring breath back into their lungs after having the air knocked out of them, or perhaps like a man who dived into frigid water and couldn't gasp for air. Soru tried to catch his breath, but to no avail. His chest was too tight, and his abdomen painfully contracted and contorted until his stomach was sucked in so much that he looked starved and emaciated. He immediately bowled over, barely holding himself up on his knees and forearms.

Then came the searing pain across his torso, like white-hot acupuncture needles pricking and tingling his raw nerves. It pulled to mind an unbidden memory of his cousin describing what is was like to get a tattoo, he said it was like your arm falling asleep after sitting on it, and then sticking that arm in a fire and then bowl of ice cubes in quick succession. Soru had thought his cousin was exaggerating to seem tough, but the description was eerily accurate to what he felt now, reaffirming Soru's prior commitment to never get a tattoo if it was anything like this.

Slowly, Soru was able to wrestle his taut core muscles into taking in short shallow rasps of air. The short reprieve gave his body the time to express its disapproval and disgust of whatever was happening inside him. A heavy lump of tears formed in the top of his tightening throat, and bile rose up in the bottom. Soru gagged as he tried to swallow the sickly mass crawling up into mouth, but no sooner had he done so than another burning wave of roiling energy flared across his body, now it felt he was drowning as what felt like scalding oil poured down his throat, a rancid taste filling his nose and coating his tongue, making his labored breaths from before an impossibility. And with the deep knot tugging down on the pit of his stomach, he couldn't even muster up the strength in his sore muscles to attempt to puke.

None of this ill feeling would prepare him for the sudden piercing pain that would afflict him next. The shock to his system was so great that he did not immediately connect this new pain to his previous predicament. His hand lept to his sternum, fully expecting to find an arrow lodged in his chest and for his hand to withdraw from his bosom slick with blood from the wound, but he found no such thing. His chest was still whole, if not scorching hot to the touch. Soru eventually realized––a very slow realization due to his dizzy and heady state of mind––that this was the pain that Vaatu had warned him against, and he found himself quite scorned at the realization that the spirit was heavily underselling it. It felt like a white-hot railroad spike had been driven into his sternum. But the pain was not merely ethereal, it did not spear straight through his soul. Soru considered that that would have perhaps been better. No, the piton of Vaatu's essence had a very corporeal weight to it, and it met with immediate resistance, only penetrating half an inch deep into his chest before it was stopped. But it wasn't stopped, only slowed. The stake pushed deeper and deeper, the weight behind the thrust increasing as it burrowed into his sinews. The weight of cinder blocks resting as that small focal point on his chest.

Soru's left hand held with up as his right hand clenched tightly at his breast and the furiously pounding heart it housed, feeling the tip of the blazing ice pick edge closer inch by inch as it greedily sought to puncture his heart, experiencing the inevitable procedure with all the perfect clarity that the excruciating agony afforded him.

Eventually Soru collapsed completely into the burning sands warmed by Agni's rays over ember island, all his remaining strength focused on the hand he held over his heart as if to feebly guard it. The weight and pressure felt so real, like someone was standing over him pushing a real stake into his heart with all of their body weight. He instinctively flexed the muscles in his chest to push against it, and the drilling actually slowed. His hand twisted, the spike was right there, he could feel it clearly, if there was anything physically there he could grasp it and pull it out like he pulled arrows out of targets during practice. Soru moved his hand as if to pantomime the action, grasping at the spike with his whole being. And he felt something touch it. His soul perhaps? He couldn't say. What he could say was that the spike vibrated with more energy than he could ever imagine, a bottomless ocean hazing in tumults of erratic convulsions all tightly bundled into the finest point, Soru fully expected his "hand" to be utterly incinerated from the contact.

And this is just a small fragment of Vaatu's essence…

Somehow, drawing on the deepest well of determination within him, Soru's grip held firm, and he began to tug, prying the spike out of his chest before it could reach his heart.

NO SORU! He heard Vaatu's thundering voice screech through his mind. If you expel me now, we shall both perish. You must integrate my essence as a part of yourself. Accept it, assimilate it. Adopt it as you would blood from your own marrow and it will not harm you.

What? Soru thought in bewilderment. How could I possibly do that? It radiates fear and anguish from its very core. It terrifies me down to my deepest animal instincts. I could never accept something like that. And so for moments that felt like eternities, Soru just stayed there in indecision, remaining perfectly still so as to not aggravate the pain anymore than he already was.

Eventually, that impossibly tight knot of energy composing the stake began to loosen, and through the fear and anguish Soru sensed something deeper within it, a pure chaos at first, but beneath that there was something else. Something so primeval and fundamental that he couldn't pin it down to just one thing, but it expressed the whole range of Vaatu's being all at once.

Before catching a whiff of this deeper thing, Soru would have called the spike pure evil, something to be wholly avoided. Like being caught in the gaze of a hungry tigerdillo, a feeling of inescapable fear, impossible to reason with or navigate through, and the promise of pain and death. But it was no longer just mortal fear he felt, but spiritual dread of the kind evoked by the shadows under the bed, or the sight of a corpse but it wasn't just a negative dread, it also carried the awe given by depths of the sea. But what really caught his attention was the slightest wisp of wistfulness within the numinous font of Vaatu's essence.

Soru felt he understood Vaatu a bit better because of it. There was fear, yes, but also the curiosity that drew one towards fearful things. The potential of death that caused fear, but the strive for surival that pushed through it. The fear of change, the unknown, of not being in control, but also the yearning to be unrestrained and stimulated. What was it that Vaatu called himself? 'The spirit of freedom, potential, change, and energy?'

Yes, Soru began to see it now. There was absolutely no element of security within Vaatu, that was the key.

There was potential for anything to happen and no guarantee that it would be good. There would be pain and loss and confusion, too much of it to bear. But there was also the potential to experience what you would never experience from the confines of your comfort zone. It was both the incentive and the cost for blazing a new trail into the chaotic unknown jungle. Good and evil were irrelevant to the matter.

Through it all Soru gleaned an important truth. He may die here: a horrible agonizing death. But all die; most don't truly live. And he wasn't going to get anywhere by playing it safe.

Was he still scared? And in pain? Oh yeah, way more than he ever had been in his whole blazing life. But pain and fear just meant that he was alive. Which meant that those things were a part of himself that he would have to accept.

The door of his old life had already closed behind him forever, but as one door closes another opens, and now the only door open to him marked the precipice of an endless void that lay on the other side of it. An endless void where anything was possible.

Back in reality, Soru was still gripping the spike of energy as it tried to push through into his chest. Sorry for resisting you, Vaatu. I thought I could make a fire but keep the fuel. I didn't want to admit it, but I'm ready to accept it now, because just like you, I'm afraid too.

And with that, Soru shoved the spike deeper into his chest. The resistance that was stopping the spike from penetrating disappeared completely, allowing the spike to instantly spear into his heart with all its weight behind it.

Soru let out a guttural scream as pure energy flooded his veins, his mind taken up into a hazy cacophony. And just as quickly as the rush came, it overtook him, and Soru collapsed.

ー火ー

"Haha, YES!" Vaatu cried in triumphant revelry. "I could scarcely have dreamed of such a connection. I can feel my essence stabilizing as it percolates through his chi pathways, consuming his chi and assimilating with his spirit, giving me new life."

The minutes turned into an hour, long after Vaatu's essence would have been completely absorbed, but the process didn't stop. A black tattoo patterned after now adorned Soru's entire torso. And it began to glow red, slowly at first, but it grew brighter and brighter until it shone through the open folds of his robe.

"Is this what it's like to take corporeal form? Such a visceral experience, drawing physical power from every cell in his body. Yes, I have no doubt that I will quickly regain my strength this way. Enough even to take control of this body."

Soru began to steadily sit up. Unconscious, but moving nonetheless.

"Rise, my harbinger of calamity."

Eventually, he got to his feet and stood tall in the evening sun.

"Rise. My herald of chaos."

He began to take slow awkward steps across the loose sands of the shore.

"Rise! My dark avatar. Oh, faithful vassal of vengeance, and vessel of my will."

Reaching the tide line, Soru's body didn't stop and he slowly waded into the waves, taking him away from his home on Ember Island.

"RISE! My Red Vestige!"

ー火ー

A/N: Another day, another Chapter. With this, the prologue is just about over. Now the story really starts. This chapter definitely got a little wordy towards the end, but the time for talk is over, now it's time for action. And since we're leaving Ember Island, I think this would be a good time to mention that this story is geographically consistent. You can follow along with every step of the journey yourself by using the interactive world map on the Avatar wiki. As always, let me know what you all think. If you have any questions or suggestions, just let me know. I respond to every review and PM I receive.