That night, Liang can't keep Avatar Aang's vision out of his head. He got up at 5:30 am and went to the meditation hall, only to see the hall empty. He thought, "He must've moved to his room…" He went there and was about to knock, however he stopped upon hearing a woman's voice saying stuff he never thought would hear. He got embarrassed and went back to his room. He still couldn't sleep, now, due to what he heard and his vision of Avatar Aang.
The next day, actually, a few hours later, Liang heads to the eating hall to have his breakfast. He probably slept for an hour and a half and he is feeling sleepy. After eating his morning meal, Liang finds Philuan in the training ground training his bending. He wants to go talk to him, however, he sees the airbender move so smoothly he doesn't have the courage to interrupt. He is amazed by how an airbender is able to mix the four elements' styles into an art.
Philuan is moving like the ocean waves, flowing like water, creating powerful air blasts with the sturdiness of earth, being as intense as fire and graceful as the air. He can't help but think that Philuan is the one that should be the Avatar as he can't even hope to begin moving like that… And he's doing that despite still being hurt from his fight with Tuk.
Suddenly Philuan stops to catch his breath as it looks like his wound is starting to hurt. He picks up a towel and starts wiping his face and after he does so he says, "Liang! Are you going to stand there gawking, or are you going to tell me what's wrong?"
Liang gets scared as he hears this. There is at least 10 meters' distance between them and Philuan didn't shout that, he talked normally. Upon approaching his airbending master he asks, "How the hell did you know I was there? And how the hell did you talk normally and I heard what you said, at that distance?"
"Airbending! You know how Toph Beinfong was blind and she sensed the vibrations through the earth and her feet? Well, I do the same, except with airbending. I am able to sense the air's vibrations through my ears and distinguish who is there. And you were able to hear me because I projected my voice through airbending as well. Just a few tricks I picked up during my training here at the Order of the New Lotus" he starts laughing after he finished explaining.
Of course Liang had to say this, "Wow, you are amazing to be able to develop your airbending this deeply, Philuan."
"Oh no, I just had a good Master, that's all." he answers. After talking about how he learned almost everything from an Airbender who "scientifically" studied airbending, he also mentioned that with years of training, the Avatar will also be able to do that much. "You just need patience and confidence." Philuan concludes.
After that talk, Philuan asked Liang what was on his mind and the Avatar explained that after he left Philuan's body in the meditation hall, he saw a vision of Avatar Aang asking him to meet him where the war ended. He wants to go there and try to reconnect with the previous Avatar's spirit. "All right, Liang. Let's go!" Philuan says.
"I don't know if that's a good idea, I mean, you are still hurt…" Liang responds. "I think it's best if I do this one alone." he concludes.
Philuan starts to argue that he can still go and guide Liang, however, the Avatar insists he has to do it alone. "What kind of Avatar would I be if I can't go alone?" he says.
The airbender ends up agreeing and he tells the Avatar to begin his search at the place where time began. "Connect with the roots of the world and let the cosmic energy flow through you, Avatar." Philuan instructs. Liang nods in agreement and with a determined look he gets ready for his journey.
Before leaving, they get a visit. "Ah, Master Philuan, there you are!" a mysterious woman says. She is a dark haired, tall-ish (shorter than Philuan), with a high pitched voice and she is running towards them. When she gets next to them, Liang can see that she is a firebender, due to her pendant present on her uniform. "Ah, AhMi, what can we have this pleasure? Here for another training session?" Philuan asks.
Liang recognizes her name immediately from what he heard a few hours before and he starts blushing and getting all embarrassed, all over again. "Yes, Master, I'm here for another training session!" she is beyond excited and Liang wants to leave that place as soon as possible. Just before Liang leaves on his journey, he sees that they really start training, as AhMi and Philuan begin sparring.
Liang then goes to get a few things in his room and leaves immediately.
— Chapter 4a.1: Liang Alone —
Liang is packed and ready to move. He is moving with a small backpack and on foot. He is packed for a 5-day trip, which is ambitious, however, heeding Philuan's advice he understood that he is meant to go to the Tree of Time, so he headed out north, towards the Northern Water Tribe's portal. He caught a train from the New Lotus HQ, which is stationed near the Serpent's Passage in the Earth Kingdom and arrives at the north part of that continent, where he catches a boat connecting to the Northern Water Tribe's capital Agna Qel'a.
From there, he needs to move on foot and it takes a day and a half to reach that area. It's important to note that Liang still hasn't found his animal guide, since his connection with Raava was dormant and he didn't leave the HQ much before his training was complete, however, despite not looking for it, it's still not too late. It was important to make a reference to this because he had to walk all the way from Agna Qel'a to the Northern Lights.
Upon arriving, one day and a half later, he was mesmerized by the beauty of that place. "Wow, it looks like lights are alive, in an eternal dance…" he whispers to himself. "Well, and they are… The northern lights are the result of the raw spiritual energy combined with the dancing spirits in the sky. After I opened the portals, the Water Tribe council decided that these portals should be guarded, in order to prevent greedy people from entering and ruining the Spirit World." Korra explained this to him and he was surprised, yet thankful for the explanation.
Upon reaching the guarding point, he realised that he had to sneak, since in the world's knowledge, the Avatar hasn't returned yet. He used a combination of Earthbending and Waterbending to dig and cover a tunnel that resurfaced near the portal. He was digging and covering, in order to not tamper with the holy ground's landscape, so he did it carefully, and so, he entered the Spirit World, through the portal, in the place where time began.
He sat down at the Tree of Time and he scoped the world's memories by meditating inside of it. He focused on Avatar Aang, so the Tree showed him his whole life, since the moment of his birth, him learning the elements, his wedding with Katara, his children and, finally, until the moment of passing the torch to Korra. After glancing through all of his life, he went back to the time when he defeated Fire Lord Ozai and he recognizes the place as the Wulong Forest.
Why did he need to go to the Tree of Time, while this is public knowledge? Simple, according to Philuan's theory, what's important isn't the place in itself, but its significance. While meditating in the Tree of Time, Liang is able to sense the spiritual energy attached to some place, since the Great Battle was there, he is able to pinpoint that energy burst from their final faceoff and through spiritual travelling, he is able to get there in an instant.
Upon arrival, he sees many rocky formations, like pillars made out of stone. Through the middle, he sees a staircase that leads him upwards through those mountains. He can see that this stairwell is very large, so he opts to rest in the foot of that mountain, and climb tomorrow.
The next day, after eating some of the rations he brought with him, he is getting ready to climb. Before he does, he is approached by a baby panda spirit that begins to talk to him. "Hello there. Who are you?" he asks. "Hi! (smiling) My name is Liang. What's your name?" the Avatar replies. "I'm just a roaming spirit… What are you doing here?" the spirit asks. "Well, I want to climb these stairs to check what's up there." Liang explains.
The spirit then asks, "You feel different, are you sure you're human? I feel that you are different, yet you feel very familiar…" the panda brazenly asks. Before Liang could answer, the panda realised and excitedly says, "Wait, you're the Avatar! I can feel Raava within you!"
Liang gets flustered and responds, "Yes, you're right, but we need to keep that a secret. It's still not the right time for people and spirits to know that the Avatar is alive."
"Okay, I'll keep your secret… If you can do something for me." the panda answers. with a curious look, Liang asks what he has in mind and, "Well, there is a mean lady up in the mountaintop and she doesn't let anyone through. Can you do something about it?" the panda asks.
"A mean lady, huh? I'll see what I can do, panda." Liang answers. As he begins his journey up the stairwell, he looks back just to see that panda gone and him totally alone. He finds it odd but he shrugs since he is in the Spirit World and resumes his journey, thinking about the mean lady, the spirit animal mentioned.
The stairwell appears to never end. While the scenery is beautiful, as he can see the Spirit World from up high, he wishes his journey to come to an end quickly, as he wants to rest. A few hours later, what would be the sundown in the Material World, he finally arrived at the entrance of what looks like a temple. He approaches and hears a female mean voice saying, "Get out! Leave us alone!" as a spirit woman rises from the shadows and confronts Liang.
That woman has black hair that is floating, eyes with no pupils, with darker complexion on her skin, a golden full moon painted on her forehead. She also has some sort of brown kimono dressed and also flaps with her hair as if there is wind blowing. (which there isn't, btw).
"So you're the mean lady, huh? I wish you'd let me pass, I want to enter that temple and explore what is inside…" The only answer Liang gets is the same get out and leave us alone that she said in the beginning. But this time, the lady attacks. There is an ooze like shadow extending from her right arm that she tries to hit Liang with. It's very powerful as it leaves slashes on the ground after he dodges it, with a jump. However, as soon as he jumps, there is another slash coming his way. He uses airbending to move out of the way, however, as soon as he lands, there is another slash coming.
Those relentless attacks continue until one of them finally hits. As that one hits, the spirit screams again, "Get out! Leave us alone! We just want to be ALONE!" shrieking after that last word. Liang, then gets serious, he fires a series of attacks, using Earthbending. The spirit is so agile, that she dodges his attacks by moving as fast as a shadow between the rocks. After seeing that he can't defeat it using only Earthbending he starts firing the other elements. However, he can't hit her. She is so fast, that even when Liang's attacks look like they are connecting, she is able to dodge them in the last minute.
"I said, GET OUT! LEAVE US ALONE!" the spirit launches an attack so powerful that Liang loses his consciousness after being hit. In his unconscious, he sees images of a woman's hands on an old man. The woman is grieving, sad and angry, as it's crying on top of a human body. That body is lying on a coffin, dead, and it appears to be a funeral.
He wakes up a few hours later, in the foot of the mountain, with his whole body feeling sore from the beat down. He wants to go up again, however, he starts doubting himself. "I can't beat that dark spirit, it's too powerful…" he says out loud.
"If you can't beat it, then try to understand it…" he hears. Liang turns to his right to see an old man with long hair and beard, wearing green clothes, almost Earth Kingdom clothes. He is bringing a pot of hot tea as he approaches the Avatar.
"Wait, who are- No, I know you. It can't be… Are you Iroh?" the Avatar asks.
The firebender spirit starts laughing and says that he is. "I can't believe that you are the third avatar in a row that I meet. This is quite the funny situation!" Iroh explains. After looking at Liang with his usual empathic attention, he asks the Avatar what's troubling his spirit. Which he responds desperately, "Well, there is a spirit upstairs that is so full of rage! Besides that, I've tried all of my bending and it isn't working. I don't know what to do…"
After a brief pause in his speech, Liang asks, "Can you help me?" question to which Iroh simply says, "A human spirit like me can't possibly help the Avatar solve a problem like this, however, if you can't solve it by bending the elements, try bending something else…" Iroh enigmatically answers. Liang is confused by the old spirit's words, in which, after laughing for a bit, he says, "Look, Liang, sometimes, if fighting isn't working, try understanding it. Why is that spirit angry?" Iroh makes the Avatar reflect upon his words and his actions. Although confused, Liang thanks Iroh and moves on to climb up the mountain again, as Iroh is waving Liang goodbye from the bottom of the stairs.
Upon reaching the temple again, Liang hears the same shriek he heard before say, "Get out! Leave us alone!" as the spirit emerges from the shadows. "I'm here to talk to you spirit! What 's your name? How can I help you fix this? I'm the Avatar!" the spirit looks at Liang, as if it didn't understand anything and shrieks again, "Why don't you leave us alone! GET OUT!" as it attacks with the same ooze that it attacked before. The attacks are just as fast and powerful, however, having seen it once before, Liang is able to dodge them, dexterously using his airbending to make his dodges easier.
However, just as last time, this spirit's attacks are relentless, as Liang gets hit again with a powerful hit. Despite being hit, he is able to put his guard up and defend against the powerful impact of the darkened ooze. Upon being hit, another vision enters his head as he sees a coffin entering a crematorium and feeling the sadness and anger of losing someone dear to them. He is distracted, so he suffers another blow, now on the other side of his body, right in the ribs. He is in pain, however, he's not taking it anymore.
Suddenly, his eyes begin to glow as he enters the Avatar State, fully in control of his actions. He uses the enhanced agility to dodge the spirit's relentless attacks, as suddenly, the Avatar is able to get near the spirit. With a swift motion, Liang is able to touch the spirit's forehead as their energies synchronise. That contact makes Liang see the spirit's human reflection, a middle aged woman, with brown hair, blue eyes, darkened skin and a blue dress, with an engagement necklace that has the drawing of oceanic waves. He can see this woman is from the Water Tribe.
He can see that this woman is the dead man's wife. He can also see the moment she arrives in the spirit world, wandering through it and ending up at that temple. She enters and sees an airbender (he recognizes as the Avatar) stuck in a bubble of light. She tries everything to let him free, but is unsuccessful. She breaks down in tears and says, "Aang, I just wanted to reunite with you and spend more time with you. Why can't I be with you, again?" her grief and sadness turns into a dark aura and corrupts her spirit, slowly, turning her into that angry shadow, finally attacking the mirror, when she gazes upon her new figure.
Liang, upon getting hit again by the spirit, is taken aback from his Avatar State as he kneels down with tears in his eyes. "That's so sad, you're the Avatar's wife and that sorrow turned you into that dark spirit… "I'm sorry I took so long to save him, but now, (sobs) now I can help him and you spend more time together. Please, let me pass, let me save your husband,… Katara…" He remembered from his meditation on the Tree of Time.
Suddenly, the spirit stops attacking and Liang sees a tear falling down its face. A corrupted whisper comes out of the spirit, "Please, help him. Help the love of my life…" she begs.
Liang starts walking and upon reaching the spirit, touches it's shoulder and says, "Don't worry Katara, leave it to me…" he passes by her and he enters the temple. Upon entering, he gazes upon an adult frozen Avatar Aang in a suspended state, inside a green energy ball, similar to Korra's prison. He breathes deeply and touches the ball. Upon touching the ball, Aang opens his eyes and when Liang enters the Avatar State, so does Aang. By bending the energy within, the prison dissipates freeing Avatar Aang from his deep slumber and in a stoic voice, "Thank you Liang, for freeing me. I am Avatar Aang, nice to finally reconnect with you…" the previous Avatar says.
"Aang, we have all the time in the world to talk, but there is someone you should talk to, first…" Liang says. Looking past the current Avatar, Aang locks eyes with the spirit, which upon seeing his husband be freed from his prison, starts crying and slowly, starts turning back to Katara. Upon turning back all the way through, Aang also starts crying and runs to hug his beloved wife. "Katara, oh my sweet, sweet Katara, how I've missed you, my love." emotionally, the Avatar says while hugging her. Katara has her face against Aang's chest, strongly embracing his beloved husband and is crying her eyes out. "Oh Aang, how I've longed to see you again. I love you so much and we're finally together again!" she says.
Liang is emotional. He is gazing upon such tender and infinite love of the reunited couple he can't help but cry tears of happiness. He is smiling from the bottom of his own soul for being able to help Katara and Aang reunite, even in their spirit forms.
A few hours have passed and the three of them are now at the bottom of the mountain and both Aang and Katara are thanking the current Avatar for helping them. "Liang, as the previous Avatar, you will always be able to contact my spirit, just look within yourself and find me…" Aang explains.
Liang nods in agreement and watches as the reunited couple begin travelling through the Spirit World. After they disappear, the panda returns to Liang's presence, now all grown up, telepathically saying, "Thank you Liang, for helping my friend."
"Wow panda, you're all grown up… Wait, do you know Aang?" Liang asks, which the panda responds, again, telepathically. "Yes, he helped plant my forest again, during his lifetime. And for that, I've always stayed his friend…"
Suddenly, the panda vanishes in a calming breeze and Liang closes his eyes. He feels his connection with Aang restored and with that, Raava says, "Well done, Liang. Now we're stronger!"
Liang picks up his things and starts his journey back to HQ, proud of himself, feeling his heart full and with an increased confidence in his skills as the Avatar. On his journey back to the New Lotus HQ, he reflects upon all his actions in his life and with a determined whisper, in the deck, says, "No more messing around. I am the Avatar!"
It's as if the world heard him, because the wind started to blow more intensely. The winds of change that only the Avatar can bring.
However, that determination is exchanged with shock, as soon as he arrives in the New Lotus HQ. There are signs of fighting and many of his comrades lying on the ground either dead or badly hurt. He checks everyone he can, however, he rushes inside seeing a path filled with blood, hurt people and dead people. As he goes in deeper, he can see many high ranked members lying on the floor grasping for air, until he reaches the outdoor garden, seeing AhMi in a pool of blood, but living.
"AhMi, what happened here? Where is Philuan?" Liang asks.
With a weak voice, AhMi stutters, "Liang, please, go to the safe room and take care of the new recruits. All of them are fine, but we need healers as fast as possible! Please, hurry…" she passes out. He can see that he is breathing, as he goes to get the healers in the new batch of recruits, where Lua, Seraa and the other members of Philuan's instruction team are located.
He explains the situation and with incredible teamwork, healers, Earthbenders and Firebenders are helping the living and joining the dead. Liang can't find Philuan anywhere. On that night, Liang was waiting for AhMi to wake up, near her infirmary bed. She finally awakes, in a stable condition, but in a lot of pain, where he asks what happened.
AhMi is able to sit and while holding her hands in a tense ball, she explains…
— Chapter 4a.2: The Black Rose blossoms… —
Three days after Liang left, Philuan and AhMi woke up in the same bed again. "Good morning." he says. "Good morning, indeed" she responds with a flirty tone. "You know, if this is what waking up feels like, I don't mind doing it again. I think the day will feel better." AhMi says this with a more "aggressive flirty tone". Her hand is passing through his abs and is going even further south until she hits bullseye. After another round, they leave Philuan's room, after sharing a passionate kiss (while still inside the room).
They are sneaking around, due to moral reasons. Supposedly, instructors can't date other members of the Order, just so there isn't any preferential treatment in training, however, AhMi and Philuan have so much chemistry, they can't resist each other for very long. After eating breakfast, AhMi with her colleagues and Philuan with his team, the firebender proceeds to train on her level and Philuan proceeds to train his team. They still aren't allowed to bend, as they are working on their physical strength.
At the end of the day, Lua, Seraa, Xi and Lee are exhausted by their training. They can't even walk straight as they limp their way out the training arena. "(pant pant) Master Philuan's training is as strict as they can be…" Lee says with difficulty. The other members agree, as they are heading to the meal hall.
The HQ of the Order of the New Lotus is a building concealed within a destroyed mountain. Upon Zaheer's efforts to join the Red and the White Lotus, the first council made a decision to take their best benders and with the help with Avatar Korra and her Avatar State, they created mountains with their bending and concealed a building within it. Although concealed, it has plenty of outdoor green spaces where their members can hang out and train. (kinda looks like a compound with indoors and outdoors spaces).
Due to the spiritual energy present there, gathered by the great number of benders, there are also some spirits and animals living there. Especially in the Airbender and Waterbender, the most spiritual elements' sections. They are living in piece and from biggest rate of benders to lowest, the Order of the New Lotus is comprised of 37% firebenders, 30% earthenders, 27% waterbenders and 5% airbenders, being the total number of benders, 65,749. Despite having a lower population than Ba Sing Se, these people are the strongest benders in the entire world, due to their overall education in bending arts, including the spiritual side. This is the true vision of the union that Avatar Aang and Fire Lord Zuko worked for in Republic City, since everyone learns the four bending disciplines and applies it to their native bending art.
Due to that learning method, there are firebenders that can destroy rocks with their bending and earthbenders that are swift as the wind. Of course, most of these benders can use many secondary bending, like lightning, lava, sand, healing, etc. They are the elite benders of the world.
While Philuan's team was headed towards the meal hall, they pass by other new recruits who are in the same state as them. Although they are all tired, all of them decide to hangout in the Firebender compound and get to know each other for a bit, before turning in for that night.
— The next day, the day of the disaster —
Philuan wakes up after having the same nightmare as the other night. After taking a shower and getting dressed, he headed out to the meal hall. He passed through his fellow airbenders, some of which were secretly recruited by him and others were already there when he arrived. He passed through his Master, who taught him the flexibility of learning how to bend air by using other disciplines. They are having a pleasant conversation as they reach their destination. Philuan and Pathik (named after the Guru who taught Aang how to control the Avatar State), are eating breakfast. It's important to note that it was also this Master who helped Philuan master his Spirit Bending and that power he used against Tuk.
In the middle of eating breakfast, AhMi passes him and they lock eyes, presenting a flirty smile to each other as she is headed to the training grounds. After breakfast, Philuan visits the infirmary to proceed with his daily dosage of healing, since it was a deep wound, it's taking more sessions to fully heal from Tuk's water blade that pierced him in his torso. After the session, an uneventful morning passed, with Philuan training his team.
Just before lunch, Philuan meets another instructor, a Waterbender as they begin training with some heavy sparring. If a novice bender looked at their battle, it felt like a battle of titans, since their bending was extremely high level. They are throwing bending strikes at each other, from ice blades and big torrents of water, to air strikes resembling tornadoes. After their training was complete, Philuan is standing with both his hands on his knees with a heavy breathing and his partner laying on the floor, also with a heavy breathing. "Well, it looks like I won this one, Ashuna!" the airbender says.
"Yeah and with that, we're tied, 25-25!" the Waterbender answers. They start laughing it off as the dust is finally settling. Since the instructors are capable of bending massive strikes, they have a private training compound, deeper in the mountains, where the other members can't feel the consequences of that training. As soon as they shake their hands, they part ways, each to their personal quarters, in order to take a shower and change clothes.
As Philuan uses his key to enter the room, he starts grinning as AhMi silently approaches. He enters the room, but "forgets" to lock the door. She takes the opportunity to sneakily enter his room, hearing the shower running. "Nice timing." she whispers to herself. She only realises that Philuan is standing behind the door, after she enters and is grabbed from behind with a tight hug from the airbender.
"How did you know?" she asks. "Well, I could smell your perfume!" he jokingly says. He uses airbending to shut the door and passionately starts kissing her neck, making her feel good. She turns her head around (with some noises, that I won't be describing) and they kiss with a fiery passion. He starts kissing her neck again and his hands start going up from her waist, stopping before her chest. He also stops kissing her and she responds, "Don't stop now!" she says.
"AhMi, wait… Something is wrong." he says. As soon as Philuan utters those words, the firebender looks at her lover as he is looking outside with a serious expression. "Get behind me!" he says as he approaches the closed window in his room. He takes a step forward and suddenly the glass break, by a stream of violent fire. He manages to defend a bit, by using a gust of wind from the palm of his right hand, as it isn't a direct hit, however, it has enough force to push him back in AhMi's direction.
A strange figure rockets his way through the window and starts creating fire from his fists, with a vertical punch, as AhMi leaps from Philuan's back and extinguishes that fire with her own firebending. She then throws a punch where blue fire emerges from her hand and connects with the strange man, incinerating his black and red cape.
He appears to be a rugged man, with a scar near his left yellow eye and a mole near his right brown eye. He has dark brown hair, he is a muscular tall man with an "X" shaped scar on his left pectoral. Aside his black and red cape (the red is only the place where a zipper is on regular coats and on the tip of the hood), he is wearing a jacket with torn sleeves, showing off his muscular torso and arms, and he is also wearing torn shorts, with a regular belt.
He says with a low pitched voice, "So, blue fire, huh? Aren't you a special one? Unfortunately, you're not the one we're looking for, girl…" she gets intimidated by his voice and allows him to hit her with a big ball of fire that pushes her out of the room. She starts bleeding from her nose from the impact and starts coughing.
Philuan uses her airbending to push him out of the room through the window and runs to the hallway where he helps AhMi stand up. "Come on, we got to go!" They start running towards the exit of the Airbender compound and as soon as they reach the outside garden, they see an all out battle against people with the same cape as that muscular guy.
It's a horrible sight, there are parts of that garden on fire, people from both sides laying on the floor and lots of fighting… They can't gaze upon their surroundings for long though, because the muscular guy comes back with fire coming out his feet, like a rocket. He launches a lightning attack against Philuan, however, just like Zuko, Iroh, Aang and Mako, he is able to redirect the attack, hitting several of the unknown attackers.
He turns to AhMi and tells her to join all the newcomers and take them all to the vault as they are only going to get in the way. She nods and takes off as Philuan takes flight and starts fighting the big firebender. By striking and dodging, their fight is attracting the attention of everyone as slowly, everyone stops fighting to gaze upon their intense battle.
Unbeknownst to everyone, the Order of New Lotus' Masters take advantage of that distraction and start taking out everyone from the unknown organization. From water whips, to digging holes with earthbending, taking out the air from their lungs and simple stuff like chops to the neck, one by one, in that garden, the unknown attackers are being defeated. Of course, during their battle, the attackers start noticing and keep going with their attack, some of them being able to escape and kidnap some of the members of the New Order.
After exchanging some blows, the firebender turns to Philuan and says, "Everyone was right, you are talented! But, in the end, I'm still going to win…" The airbender answers by saying, "When you say everyone, who are you talking about?"
"Oh, that's right, they erased your memories. Don't worry, you'll remember soon enough!" the firebender says. "Okay, enough games, big man! Who the hell are you and what the hell do you want?" Philuan angrily asks. "We are the Order of the Black Rose. The ones who are going to revert our world into its original state!" the big man answers. He follows it up with, "Enough talking, it's time you get laid down!" he starts attacking with big blasts of fire, way more intense than before.
Even in the air, Philuan shows a mastery over his bending, being able to dexterously avoid the fire blasts by flying around. Suddenly, the firebender punches the air with both hands simultaneously, launching a big fire ball downwards. Philuan won't be able to dodge that attack since by doing it, it will hit the people in the ground. He stands his ground, his eyes start glowing in the same white shade as it did against Tuk, and by extending his right hand against the fire ball, he launches a powerful gust of air, breaking the firebender's attack burst into mere flying sparkles.
The flames dissipate and an intense white aura envelops Philuan as he looks up with a serious look. "Enough messing around. It's time to finish this…" his voice echoes through the air. He punches the air and a massive gust is created but the firebender manages to avoid it, however, Philuan is already above him, preparing the next attack. He kicks the air downwards and a rapid air strike descends upon the firebender. When Philuan enters that State, he becomes swifter and more agile (more than he already is), so this time, his attack grazes his foe, making him lose its balance.
Upon regaining it, the firebender can only notice Philuan next to him, right in front of him, with both hands chambered in the punch position. He stretches both arms at the same time, creating a big blast of air, hitting the firebender violently in his torso. He flies out backwards hitting with incredible violence against a wall. Upon hitting it, he starts coughing up blood and passes out.
After defeating him, Philuan slowly lands on the ground and the aura enveloping his body fades. He breathes deeply and starts sweating, since that state is physically exhausting. He looks around and most of the Black Rose's members are down, having been defeated by the Masters and members, however, he feels something pierce the side of his neck and suddenly is feeling very dizzy. He falls down to his knees and starts screaming in pain, grabbing his head. The members look at the instructor and the person holding the needle and start rushing to his aid, however, the next moments aren't pretty to see.
His energy bursts, being enveloped in a more intense, now light purple aura and an explosion of air entails, making everyone in the garden being launched in the air backwards. In a desperate attempt to control his powers, he starts launching air strikes to empty spaces, however, to no avail, he begins rampaging. Suddenly, his aura dissipates and a deafening silence follows, as he falls to his knees, completely passed out.
The person who injected him says, "Ooooh, you managed to control it? You are still very impressive, Philuan…" He picks him up, and attempts to carry him out. "Leave him alone!" he hears, turns and dodges a ball of blue fire. "Ooooh, blue fire, huh? It's rare, but it isn't the rarest colour I've seen…" the hooded man says.
AhMi is preparing another attack, as she chambers a side kick, however, the hooded man stomps the ground and a spike of earth pierces her torso, right beside the belly button. She falls down and is grabbing her wound as she is bleeding immensely, from her wound, when she looks up and sees the hooded man as he says, "Since you're so talented, I've avoided a vital organ, but you better see one of your healers, before it's too late." He begins to walk away. AhMi is trying to reach the hooded man, but she can't move. The pain is too great. She looks down at her wound and knows that if she doesn't stop the bleeding, she is going to die.
She looks around and sees the Order of the Black Rose leaving after defeating the rest of the Lotus' members that were still standing after Philuan's energy burst. She doesn't see anyone left standing, so in a desperate attempt, she uses her firebending to heat her hand and cauterizes her wound, stopping the bleeding. However, the pain is far too great to handle it, consciously, so she passes out.
— Present day —
"After that, I only remember waking up when you arrived…" AhMi concludes. She is visibly sad and angry due to not being able to save Philuan. She is trembling and not able to form more words out of her mouth and she starts crying. As Liang isn't able to say anything to her, he only says, "Well, rest now AhMi, I'll talk to the Masters." she nods, lies down again and Liang leaves her side. He can hear her crying breaths as he walks away, straight to the Masters' council.
Upon arriving, he enters the room and he sees that they are already meeting to find solutions for their problems. He gazes upon them also hurt, with injuries in their arms, heads, even one of them with a broken leg. He asks them "What happened? Even you weren't able to fend them off?" The firebending Master, a middle aged woman with yellow eyes, short brown hair in a traditional Fire Nation bun explains that after they defeated some of the minions, they were ambushed by a lean earthbending man that defeated them after some kind of "weird purple aura" enveloped his body. "It's like we were fighting an army of Earthbenders…" she described.
The Avatar is visibly frustrated for not being present in the moment of the attack, maybe he could've tipped the scales. But he wasn't here and now his Airbending instructor was kidnapped.
"Liang…" the Waterbending Master starts, "Thank Raava you weren't here… This attack was relentless… I fear not even the Avatar would be able to defeat those freaks… I know this is frustrating, but we need to consider the world's balance, before any personal feelings…" he finishes.
"Easy for you to talk… Maybe I could've tipped the scales for us and now… now my Airbending instructor, my Master is missing and I don't know where HE IS!" he emotionally says. He loses a bit of control and his eyes start glowing as the Avatar State is triggered for a few milliseconds, however he is able to control it. "Sorry for losing control like this, but Philuan is the first person to ever believe in me and now we don't even know where he is or how he's holding up…"
The Masters acknowledge his suffering and frustration and the Airbending Master says, "Philuan is a precious member of our Order, a dear friend and an irreplaceable presence within our ranks. We're not resting until we've found him, and when we do, all of us in the room will rescue him… We're counting on you as well, Avatar!"
Liang agrees, however, he says that they are going to need help. "From what I could tell, they were an army, and we are outnumbered and hurt, maybe we should ask for help from the United Republic of Nations…"
Despite a bit of reluctance from the Masters, since Philuan is on the Republic' blacklist they end up agreeing to ask for help, using the argument that there is an organization that attacked them and should be dealt with. The bigger decision to make was whether or not to reveal that Philuan was kidnapped or not, however, for transparency, they decided that they should make a list of the members that were kidnapped and deliver all of them in an audience to the United Republic's army council.
"Liang, get ready, because this is the time the Avatar will return to the world of the living…"
The Avatar agrees with determination in his eyes and finishes the conversation with, "Let's go get Philuan and defeat that Order of the Black Rose…"