Disclaimer: I don't own BIONICLE or Avatar: The Last Airbender. They belong to their respective owners, not me.
"So, what do you think it is, Katara?"
"Why are you asking me?"
Sokka shrugged at his sister. "Oh, I don't know. This is strange, and you're as strange as it gets. I think the connection fits pretty well."
Though the younger sibling, Katara shot Sokka a stern glare not too dissimilar from their mother's. It was the same glare she had several minutes before their boat crashed, when Sokka criticized Katara for practicing the "strange" ways of Waterbending. Of course, manipulating water with her mind always left Sokka soaking wet.
What started as a simple fishing trip turned into disastrous in minutes. The small banter turned into bickering, and after becoming marooned on a block of ice, the bickering turned into a full blown argument that-when mixed with an angry Katara possessing "water magic," as Sokka called it-broke a huge iceberg into dozens of tiny pieces. What came out of the ice was… was…
A body.
At least, that was what Katara thought it was. It looked like a metal copy of one, all broken up and scattered all over the ice in skeletal-like fragments. Whatever it was, it definitely was not human.
Katara trailed her eyes the giant canister resting on the small island of ice. With the domed top drifting away, it allowed Katara to approach the now-empty canister.
Her brother thought otherwise. "Katara, what do you think you're doing!?"
"I'm going to take a look inside," Katara answered.
"Katara, no! Something might come out and grab your face!"
Rolling her eyes, Katara popped her head into the canister and took in a sharp breath. Unlike the frost-covered shell, strange lines spread all over the canister's insides. Those lines flashed faintly with a low hum, revealing more strange lines that formed even stranger shapes. To top it off, it was oddly warm, so much that Katara pulled down the furry hood of her coat.
"Woah," she uttered. "Sokka! Come over here!"
"What happened? Did something come out and grab your face?"
"Wha-no! Take a look at this!"
"Just what…" Sokka stopped as he popped his head in canister. "Woah…"
Katara shot a curious glance at him. "What do you think it is?"
"I dunno… It doesn't look like it's from the Fire Nation…" Sokka trailed off, pulling back his own hood.
Katara drew herself out to let her brother peek inside. She pulled the hood back up before the cold air could nip at her ears. She envied Sokka enjoying the inside of something nice and warm-almost, anyway. The canister, the whole thing, was just strange. What it was, what had been inside it, and how it became frozen in the ice were among the many other questions lurking around Katara's mind.
'I never thought I could do something like that,' she thought, looking down at her mitted hand and remembering how her own powers shattered the ice surrounding the canister.
Suddenly, the air grew colder, or so Katara had thought. The South Pole had always been between mildly cold and to below freezing, so she thought it was nothing. However, when Katara rubbed her arms for warmth, a slight rattle made her realized that it was not just nothing.
Katara's eyes darted back to the broken body some feet away. The lone rib cage, a head, and the limbs, down to the fingers, shook ever so slightly. Among the limbs, a severed arm moved towards the main body.
Katara repeated the thought. The arm was moving. On its own.
Gaping at the mobile arm, Katara barely heard her oblivious brother. "You know, it's not much, but I think we could work with this. Maybe we can use this thing to get back home."
"Uh, Sokka!" Katara called out, eying another arm and the two legs gaining closer to the torso.
"Not now, Katara."
"Sokka!" She pulled her brother out and spun him around. "Look!"
"Just what do you-WAH!" Sokka protested then spot the recombining body. "K-Katara, that arm is moving!"
"I noticed," Katara quipped.
As if it could not become any stranger, lines of white energy leached out of the main torso and attached to the scattered limbs like umbilical cords. One such limb, a leg, was dragged near Sokka's own feet. "GAH!" he jumped away. "Just what's going on?!"
Katara gave up of thinking of an answer. "I… I don't know!"
The two siblings stood there, bodies shaking in fear and from the sudden drop in temperature while watching the thing unfold. First, the arm joined the still torso. Then, the other arm, and soon, the two legs. Limbs once bent out of shape straightened themselves out, and the torso rose from the icy glacier it rested on. Blocky feet tried to find their place on the ground, and an equally blocky head swirled around with a pair of glowing eyes.
"It's looking this way!" Katara whispered.
Sokka whispered back, "Just stay still. Maybe it won't notice us." The hope was just a sliver behind a layer of fear.
Not a minute layer, the thing fixed its gaze elsewhere, and it walked, away from the two.
"Huh," Sokka blinked, "that actually worked."
Just as surprised, Katara looked at the creature. Its legs moved forward, letting out loud mechanical creaks and squeaks until it stopped on the ice.
"Let's go," Sokka said, then he made a run for it.
Katara grabbed his arm to stop him. "Sokka, wait!"
"Katara! Quick, while its busy!" he begged.
"Where to? We're surrounded by ice!" she argued, keeping her voice low.
"Anywhere, but here is good! Now let's go before it sees us and-"
Another loud whirl stopped Sokka's sentence. The thing was bending down to pick up something. That something turned out to be a round mask as white as the ice and three scopes over the right eye. It turned, slanted and glowing eyes fixated on the arguing siblings.
"Ah, great…"
Just as Sokka's words came out, Katara could only watch the newly-made being stood tall on its two legs. It used one hand to put the white mask on, and its body was covered in the same aura of energy that brought it together.
Then, everything went white.
White pulsed from the heart of a small stone before it radiated out. The white stone glowed with its brethren of purple, green, yellow, blue, and red colors. The cloaked figure sitting over the stones watched them with a curious look. "Hmm, so the sixth has awakened…" he murmured to himself.
His glowing eyes then rose to the sky. "After so long, it has finally happened," he said, his worn voice no louder than a whisper. "But now, I wonder what will happen. Will they find each other? When they do, will they be united? Will they find their duty? What will await them on their destiny?"
Sadly, there was no answer to any of his questions, so the figure put them aside and collected the six stones in his palms. After securing them inside his cloak, the figure renewed his journey across the desert, fully aware of the night sky now shining with six new stars.
AN: Another of several plot bunnies that have been hopping around in my end. I did bring this up earlier, with an A:TLA/Bionicle crossover having an ancient avatar dealing with a certain giant, and what I've written is a sort of sequel to that. I would like to make it into a full-blown story, but I don't want it to be just another story upon another story upon another story that I want to write only to put it aside. If I ever do it, I certainly know that it will take more than just me. Hopefully, I can get a co-author or two to help out.
Raika out.