Philuan is trapped… Since these are the modern days, Satomobiles have evolved quite a bit. Now they have more powerful motors, so they can travel faster, have big trunks for luggage (and bodies) and all kinds of technology associated with them. Because of those bigger trunks, he is now hand and feet tied with a muzzle on his mouth. He is trying to break free, but he just isn't strong enough, even with his airbending…Maybe they gave him some kind of paralysing agent, somehow…
After a few jumps, the Satomobile has stopped and it isn't long until a hooded man opens the trunk and picks Philuan up and starts bringing him into some kind of modern laboratory. He is giving his best to break free but his vision is still blurry and he's feeling weak. The man ties him up to a chair and a bright light is pointed at him and his vision is overwhelmed by that light to a point where he can't see anything. Suddenly he hears the sound of mechanical whirring and an acute pain is taking over his body… He blacks out.
Suddenly he rises from his bed, sweating, and with heavy breathing… He touches his legs, arms and chest, but he feels no pain. It was just a nightmare… He starts to wonder what that was, a nightmare or a memory that his mind has repressed. He decides to pay no more attention to this feeling, as "it was just a nightmare… After all, if I was kidnapped into a laboratory, I would remember…"
He swiftly gets out of bed, and hops into a quick shower and changes clothes. He is ready to face another New Lotus day. It has been two years since Liang's training has begun and the Instructor's council deemed it was finally time for the Avatar to return into the world and start to make a difference. Despite that readiness, Philuan advises that the Avatar and the Order proceed with caution, since the untimely reveal of the Avatar's return can bring unnecessary attention from the wrong people.
"That's true Philuan, but it can bring hope to the people…" another instructor reveals. "I understand that, but somehow, I have a feeling that we need his reveal to be strategic. More important than hope, is the attention we want to avoid…" Philuan arguments.
"Remember, Liang will reveal himself to the world as a full fledged Avatar, people will start to wonder, how is that possible, where did he train and all that stuff… We need to be cautious. I believe that the Avatar's return should be synchronized with the Order's return."
The council ends the discussion by agreeing with Philuan and starting the day of teaching. Philuan goes to his assigned team and he realises there is a familiar face between the bunch. He can't put his finger exactly on where he knows this person, however he has seen her. This woman appears to be close to Philuan in age, she has small height, dark long hair, small eyes and he thinks she is cute.
He disregards, but he can't shake off that feeling. He approaches the team and says, "Hello team, my name is Philuan and I'm going to be your instructor for the next 6 months. Be aware that sometimes, I'll be going on missions and sometimes, I'll take you with me and other times, I won't. Whenever I'm not with you, I expect you to train independently. So, I'd like you to introduce yourselves, please."
He points at the Waterbender and she starts, "Hello, sir, my name is Lua and I'm a waterbender. I specialize in surprise attacks using fog and ice…" This person is actually playing with ice, making it melt, freeze and levitate. Next is the Earthbender, "My name is Xi, I'm an earthbender who can also sandbend!" he says confidently. He isn't playing with his bending, but he strikes as a confident disciplined person, who was waiting to be admitted into the army his whole life. "Yes, I'm Lee and I'm a firebender. I can produce lightning in ways that other people can't!" He punches the air and instead of producing fire, he discharges a little bit of electricity. Anyone who receives that punch will be electrocuted. Finally, the airbender introduces herself, "Hello, my name is Seraa and I'm an airbender." She talks in a shy manner, but she appears to have great potential (Philuan is thinking the exact same thing).
"Well, thank you for your introductions. At the end of these six months, it's expected from you to be able to understand the true essence of bending… So, in order for me to realise what level you're at, you're going to spar with each other. There's only one rule, no bending allowed!" Philuan explains.
In the midst of their sparring, Philuan realises a couple of strong and weak points from each and everyone of his team members. He realises that Lua can adapt to any of her foes, easily but her close combat skills are lacking, that Xi has a sturdy body, able to handle physical damage, but whenever someone targets his legs, he loses the battle instantly. He also realises that while Lee is boasting confidence and intimidation, take away his bending and he crumbles easily and that Seraa is a very agile person, but way too traditional, even when she is fighting with no bending.
While he is observing the four of them, he remembers Seraa. She is the airbender that brought him to the Air Temple Island, when he was in Nozu Town. "What is she doing here?"
After the session was over, Philuan explained that while he is their instructor they will rarely have training sessions with him. The instructors' role is more supervising their team, take them on missions and adapt their training curriculum by evaluating their weak spots, and report them into the training officers of the New Lotus. However, he finishes by saying, "Well, my observation led me into making one rule for all of you, in these next six months, you are strictly forbidden from bending, while you are on the inside of HQ and on the outside. Even when you are having bending related training."
All of them start complaining, except for Seraa. They all try to negotiate but the instructor can't be convinced, ending the conversation by mockingly saying, "Well, since you're all so passionate about bending, if you ever bend without my permission, you will be expelled from the New Lotus Order… Is that clear?"
They have no chance but to comply and end up saying, "Yes sir!" and they are dismissed. Philuan will be talking to the training officers about his team's training, but first. "Seraa, will you please come with me, please?" her heart starts pounding harder in her chest, and it goes faster and faster as the time with Philuan goes by. He is taking her into some kind of shrine where Liang is actually meditating.
"Ah, Liang! Let me introduce you to a new member of my team, Seraa. She is an airbender…" Liang is looking at her as if he was evaluating her from top to bottom and while she is distracted evaluating Liang as well, before Philuan interrupts.
"So, Seraa, tell me something, did Grand Master Jinora set you up with this?" her heart jumps upon hearing this. "Huh, what are you talking about? I followed your footsteps and left the Air Nation. I couldn't put up with their traditional ways anymore…" Philuan finds it odd, so he is going to try a more persuasive method. Suddenly, he applies the same bending technique that he applied to Liang when his spirit left his body, to Seraa. She is floating outside her body and is pushed to the Spirit World. However, Liang was pushed to a calming place, while she was pushed to the canyon where the Fog of Lost Souls is located…
She quickly identifies where she is and starts panicking. When she looks back, Philuan is there saying, "Let's try this again, shall we? And remember if I feel like you're lying, I'll quickly send you there!"
"No, I swear, I left the Air Nation on my own accord, I'm not lying." Seraa says. "Although, I haven't been entirely truthful, I did leave by my own choice, just like you…" Tears are coming out of her eyes, she looks sincere by saying that and when Philuan starts to relax, he asks for the whole story. It is obvious that Seraa is having trouble telling the whole truth, however, she knows that nothing can escape him, so she breathes in and out and tells her instructor the whole truth.
"Ever since that day, when we brought you in, I realised how strong you were. Even if you didn't throw a single punch, I could always tell that if any of us attacked you, you were always going to win, and when I saw you fly on your own, I realised that what you have is true strength. So, I thought long and hard, even after that, when I was training in the Air Temple Island and I was getting beaten by the other Airbenders in the practical training sessions, that the way I use my bending isn't protecting anyone. Even worse, when I saw the others who were less proficient in Airbending than me, receiving more praise just because they were doing a (air quotes) more traditional airbending style…"
She is embarrassed but she ends up saying that she tried some of the moves she saw Philuan doing that day and they felt way more powerful than the traditional ones. Ever since she tried them, the Masters started criticising her in training and excluding her from missions. So, she left the Air Nation. Upon one of her travels, for her day job, she encountered one of the New Lotus scouts and he gave her the riddle for the entrance and she solved it. "I was very surprised to see that you were my instructor, I hoped you wouldn't recognize me, but I see I was wrong to think that." Seraa concludes.
Suddenly, Philuan readies a stance, Seraa flinches, however, in a heartbeat, Seraa is back to her body and Philuan returns right after. Liang is there just watching over the bodies. Upon their arrival, Philuan says that he's going to give her a chance. "Don't disappoint the Order, Seraa…" He concludes.
She was dismissed and returned to her quarters. She is still quivering from the feeling of having her spirit extracted out of her body, but for a few seconds, she felt what real bending was. She began feeling excited with the opportunity of learning new bending styles and with that, she went to take a shower, dressed with her pajamas and fell asleep. She woke up the next day feeling ready to take on the new day.
When she arrived at the training grounds, she felt a little disappointed by not seeing Philuan. She wonders, "I hope he's all right…"
That morning, Philuan left the HQ with Liang on a simple mission. In order to test the Avatar's skill on handling people, they left for a small village that is having trouble with market robbers. That town is north of the Fire Nation's first colony during the Hundred Year War, Yu Dao. That town is still standing, after all that time and is thriving. It's one of the biggest towns of the United Republic of Nations and Earth Kingdom (although it's a democracy with a president, they maintained their name of Kingdom).
That village located north of Yu Dao is small with a market where people from the big city go to buy their resources for large businesses, however, since it's humble, they are having trouble with robbers. When they arrive at that village, they can see that people are getting desperate, displaying no energy in renovating their location. Even when talking to some of the townspeople, all of them told the two benders that they wanted to leave that place. They were tired…
A few hours have passed and the sun is going down. Philuan is instructing Liang on their course of action and concludes with, "Remember Liang, you cannot reveal yourself yet as the Avatar, so if we have no choice but handle this with bending, you are only allowed to Earthbend." Liang nods with agreement and suddenly chaos breaks loose. People act like they're used to it and get themselves down. There are three assailants, one Waterbender and two Earthbenders.
"Get down! You know the drill! We want all the food!" the Waterbender says.
While the townspeople are busy getting down, Philuan and Liang engage. "Wow, fellows, what's with all the aggression?" the Airbender says. It's important to know that the Order of the New Lotus is a secret organization, however, still very easy to recognize, due to the symbol, so they left without their hooded cloaks. If they need to get through a checkpoint, all the members have a coded message they use to identify each other.
"Oh look, we have a freaking hero… So, buster, do you really wish to get hurt that badly?" one of the Earthbenders asks. "Oh no, I just want to resolve this peacefully. Tell me, what do you need? Money, a job? Because, I can get you one of those…" the Airbender is trying diplomacy.
"Besides being a hero, he's also a clown. Listen there buddy, yes, we want money, but we want YOUR money…" the other Earthbender replies. Liang then interjects and says, "Look, I'm sure there's a way for us to resolve issues peacefully, there's no need to involve innocent people in this. Look at them. They are suffering because of your actions… Come on, let's stop this." Liang is trying his best, however, the trio laughs and the Waterbender, who looks like is the leader of this gang replies with, "Yes, they are suffering, and we like it" and continues laughing.
That was the tipping point for the young Avatar. In the midst of all the laughter, Liang strikes the Waterbender with a boulder right against his torso. He's angry and he lets his emotions go all out. Although angry, he stroke with mercy, so as soon as the Waterbender falls, he can say, with half a breath, "Get them!"
The two Earthbenders start attacking Philuan and Liang. Philuan sighs, "Haaa, it always ends in conflict…" He readies a stance and waits for one of the Earthbenders to attack him. That Earthbender steps on the ground, creating small fissures on the ground and a few boulders rise from it. He then attacks continuously, sending first two boulders, then one, then two again, all in sequence.
Philuan dodges the first two by twisting above the first two, then he uses his airbending to push the third boulder from the air, straight to the ground and then when he lands, he weaves the last two under them. When he weaves below the rocks, he twists his body and performs a sweeping kick, creating an air current to the legs. Since he's very agile, after the kick, he jumps and with a left jab chambered and punches the air, creating an air strike against his foe.
The Earthbender jumps and evades the sweep, however, he can't dodge the air strike and the second technique connects with his body, making him fly against a tree and lose his consciousness.
Meanwhile, Liang is walking towards the Waterbender, with three small rocks floating on top of his hand. He gained proficiency with Earthbending through his whole training period and his strikes are now swift, while he can maintain the usual sturdiness of his birth element. Suddenly, the other Earthbender gets in his way and signals the Waterbender to run, and the Waterbender complies and starts to run away.
Liang, easily knocks down his foe by jumping with a medium boulder behind him and by launching it to the target, by twisting in the air and kicking in the direction of the thug. The boulder flies towards him and the hostile Earthbender breaks it easily, however, using the dust cloud as a distraction, Liang uses Airbending to propel himself faster to the ground and chopping the thug in the neck, making him lose his consciousness.
Liang looks for the Waterbender, however, he is gone. He gets ready to go look for him, but Philuan grabs his arm and calls him to reason and, finally, Liang calms down… He apologises for his behaviour, but explains that when he was a child, his mother's store was robbed frequently by those kinds of thugs and that must've triggered him. "I understand, Liang and I'm sure your mother will be very proud of you when you can defend her store, but right now, the world is in jeopardy and it needs you as much as your mother. You must stay calm, otherwise, you might trigger the Avatar State without meaning to and then it's worse." Philuan explains. He does it empathetically, and thanks to that empathy, he realised that he touched a sensitive topic, because Liang's facial expression darkened for a bit.
Liang apologises again with a bow and returns to his usual goofy side, although Philuan can understand it's forced. He doesn't insist and they move on.
At the same time, the Waterbender, named Tuk, is attempting to get away, still grasping his stomach from the boulder he was hit with. He stops leaning against a tree and he glances over to Philuan and Liang's direction. "I will get you someday! The great Tuk never forgets a face, and always makes those who get in his way pay the price!" He arrogantly says.
Suddenly he is paralysed, he can't move. A man covered in an all black cloak with dark blue and red edges approaches him. He also realises that another person with the same cloak is there in a weird stance. A weird stance he recognizes… "You're a Bloodbender!" They say nothing until they stick a needle with a weird purple liquid inside in Tuk's neck. Suddenly, the man who injected him says, "Now, go make them pay…"
They disappear into the forest as Tuk starts twitching and screaming with agonizing pain. Suddenly he stops. It looks like he's dead, however, suddenly he opens his eyes with a strange purple-ish colour. He rises and starts running while maniacally laughing towards Philuan and Liang.
While the Airbender mentor and the Avatar are restraining the two Earthbenders they defeated, a blade of sharp water is approaching them fast. Philuan is only able to blast Liang and the two Earthbenders out of the way as he gets hit with that blade of water in the left side of the torso. The wound looks deep and it hurts a lot.
There's blood spreading all over the area that was hit. After the shock of being attacked out of nowhere, both the Avatar and the Airbender look at the origin point of the attack, when they see a totally different Lua approaching. His eyes are purple and he has a strange aura enveloping his body… Liang, upon seeing this new threat, gets the exact same feeling as when he met Philuan, something dark and eerie.
The Avatar gets frozen in place, until he hears Philuan's voice calling him out, "(muffled) Liang, (a bit louder, but still muffled) Liang, LIANG!" The airbender calls.
"What are you waiting for? Get the hell out of here!" he continues. The Avatar looks at Philuan with a panicked expression and finally says, "I'm not leaving witho-" he is interrupted by a freezing ball that was thrown by Lua. He got hit on the head and he blacks out. The airbender couldn't react and sees his student get hurt. He glances over at Lua, who is ignoring Philuan (he is walking towards Liang, with ice spikes floating above his hands, ready to kill the Avatar).
"Oh, I'm not going to allow you to kill Liang, no way in hell", Philuan thinks. He throws a pained blast of air strong enough to get Lua's attention. Suddenly, he is walking towards the airbender. He launches the ice spikes against Philuan, instead, and with agile airbender boosted acrobatics, Philuan is able to twist in the ground, and jump, evading the spikes. He, however, manages to catch one of the spikes and uses it to stop the bleeding with the freezing temperatures. In order for Lua to not use that spike to further harm him, he uses it only for two seconds, being able to take advantage of the small dust cloud that was formed, tossing it away, immediately.
"*pant*pant* So, you want to play like that, huh? Fine, (his voice gets darker) I guess I'll turn it up as well…" says the airbender. Suddenly, Philuan's voice is starting to echo with a darker, sinister second voice, although still his own. His eye colour changes to white and he also has an aura surrounding his body, different from Lua's. His is white and carries a certain calmness, while Lua, reeks of hatred and darkness. Although very similar, what they feel like is different. The other difference is, Lua looks like he can't control his actions and Philuan is in total control.
Lua, upon seeing Philuan's power, berserkly attacks the Airbender, with large streams of water. His attacks are stronger, bigger and quicker. However, as if he was one with the wind, Philuan moves at incredible speeds and dodges all the attacks that Lua launches towards him. Only by moving, Philuan is already creating strong winds that are disrupting Lua's point of view. He can't see, however, since he is in a berserk state, he's attacking randomly, and the more time passes, the more random the attacks seem.
Suddenly, Philuan stops. He's standing there, with his big white-ish eyes, and white aura, enveloping his body. Lua makes eye contact with Philuan and screams, as he attacks with four large streams of fast paced water. The Airbender starts running towards the attack, dodges the two first streams by lowering his center of gravity, the other two are getting nearer Philuan and he dodges them by jumping towards Lua, positioning him right on top of the Waterbender. At the same time, he readies a superman punch. Upon stretching his arm, a big air blast comes out of his fist and hits Lua, in the back side of the cervical, making Lua hit the ground so hard, he passes out.
The purple aura vanishes and the threat is neutralized. Upon landing, Philuan also dissipates his aura and his eye colors change back to the usual grey. He breathes deeply and he feels dizzy, however, he manages to hold on to his feet. He is looking at Lua with a concerned expression, but, as usual, he does his job and restrains the thug. He calls in the Order and looks around to the town. All the indiscriminate water streams wrecked the town and now that the dust is settling, the townspeople are returning to the scene and are feeling the despair of seeing their home destroyed.
Liang is awake and up. He saw that final attack and was shocked upon seeing Philuan's proficiency and strength. He asks, "Philuan, what was that power, it looked like the Avatar State…" the Airbender quickly responds, "Let's talk about it afterwards, right now we have people to help!"
"Yes, this is Philuan, we have a Code Cloud. We need help at our location! Yes, north of Yu Dao. Thank you ma'am! Come on, Liang, use your Earthbending, let's help!" the Airbender leads. The Avatar shouts a very determined "Yes sir!" and starts using his Earthbending to help people who need.
30 minutes later, the Order of the New Lotus arrives and begins helping even more. Code Cloud is a codephrase within the organization that basically means, "we destroyed something in the midst of battle, we need healers, earthbenders to help reconstruct and a way to appease the people, come urgently" There are people who are thankful for defeating the thugs and there are people who are blaming the two benders who came to town and destroyed it. "We totally understand what you are saying sir, however, these thugs have been restrained and will never return here, I'll make sure that happens. We can also offer you our protection if you so desire and help rebuilding, with no financial costs to anyone. All our benders are on equal footing with the Airbender that defeated that Waterbender."
The person who was arguing with the Order's appeasal officer, suddenly calms down and agrees to the protection and the rebuilding offer, as long as the two benders that came, never return as well. Philuan apologises and agrees that him and Liang will never return to this town, to stay. But request that if they are passing through, that they allow them to do so, because they might be in a hurry to another mission and that might be the quickest way.
"Hmm, fine! As long as you don't stay very long…" says the person.
Upon cleaning up the debris, while Lua is being transported in a stretcher, he starts shouting in pain. He is in immense pain and suddenly starts seizuring, foaming through the mouth. This is so intense, he falls from the stretcher and the healers from the New Order is unable to react. While this is happening, the Waterbender starts turning purple and is starting to decay. Upon seeing this, Philuan is witnessing what happened to Grand Master Jinora's grandson. He realizes what it means, however, he approaches and starts to call Luato consciousness, however, just as it happened with Lozahn, Lua too perishes, with a decayed body.
Philuan expresses his sadness with a long sigh, recalling all the events of Lozahn's death. He wasn't there when Jinora's grandson lost his life, however he was one of the first people that saw his body when he arrived on Air Temple Island. At that time, he already ended his training at the Eastern Air Temple School for Benders and non-Benders, so he must've begun his missions with the Air Nation a few months before Lozahn's death. (Since Lozahn's death was two and a half years ago, and Philuan graduated six months before his death, when he was eighteen, we can say that the airbender is currently 21 years old).
He is looking at Lua in his arms, completely imobile, as his life is fleeing from his body and the Airbender is recalling Lozahn's funeral day, when suddenly images from his nightmare come flooding his head, giving him a slight headache. The real headache starts when he sees new images of that nightmare. He's seeing himself getting thrown in a dark dungeon, with white and green crystals lighting the hallways, with rock walls and grey metallic doors. He sees himself being dragged through those hallways and finally being thrown into that cell, where he looks at the mirror, feeling an agonizing pain and being enveloped in an eerie purple aura. He finally snaps out of it and finally hears Liang calling him out.
"Are you all right, Philuan? You look like you've seen a ghost…" Liang asks after he's able to call the airbender out of that state. "Hum, yes, I'm all right, just a light headache…" Philuan answers. Of course, he's feeling dizzy from fighting Lua and from that massive headache he had, but he's not going to say anything about that, despite having a serious look on his face.
The way back to the HQ, they were quiet all the way. Philuan was being healed by the Waterbenders and after that, he was meditating, all along. Since he was so still and quiet, it looked like Philuan was in the Spirit World, so Liang is trying his best not to disturb his Master, but he is worried. Night approaches and they have arrived, for a few hours. Since Philuan hasn't returned to his body, Liang uses earthbending to move a rock beneath him and carefully places him in the meditating hall of the HQ.
After putting him down, on the altar of the meditation hall, he turns around to leave and he gazes upon a spirit, of a person unknown to him. He sees an adult airbender, with grey eyes, a brown beard and he is asking for help. He can't hear him, however, in the last second of the mirage he hears, "Come find me, at the place where the war ended…"
The mysterious airbender disappears and Liang is confused. He doesn't know who that is, despite the familiar feeling he's getting. "Raava, who is that?" he asks. Liang listens to a voice from deep inside him, "That is Avatar Aang. He was the Avatar before Korra and he ended the 100 Year War…" the Light Spirit explained. "Come find me at the place where the war ended? Raava, where did Aang defeat the Fire Lord?" he enthusiastically asks.
"Liang, remember, I'm a spirit, I don't know how to answer that question. You must find that out yourself…" Raava calmly answers. "Sorry, Raava, I got carried away. Thank you!" Liang concludes the conversation and leaves the room. A few hours later, at 5 am, Philuan returns to his body from his meditation and leaves the room. He enters his room, takes off his shirt and covers himself. It looks like he grabs something lying on his bed, when suddenly.
"(waking female voice) Hmm, how did the mission go?" the mysterious girl asks. "It went fine, just don't touch my lower right side." he answers jokingly. "I'll try not to hurt you." The girl laughs. "Go back to sleep AhMi, I'll fall asleep shortly as well." he whispers before pecking her neck with a kiss. He lies down after, he tries to sleep, but he can't as he starts thinking about Lua. He whispers, very low, in order not to wake AhMi up, "Huh, looks like I'm going to visit Air Temple Island…" It was unsuccessful, he woke AhMi up and told her what happened.
"Wow, I'd never guess you would face that problem again… How are you feeling?" she asks. "Well, I never doubted it, however, it's still shocking to see that again… I don't know what's happening or even why, but it looks like the shift of the energy of the world is about to change, and we need to stop it…" Philuan says with a determined tone. She is looking at Philuan with a smile on her face, she loves to see him determined to change the world. He looks at her and says, "It's not a concern for now, Let's sleep. Sorry I woke you up…"
AhMi, with a flirtatious tone in her voice, simply says, "Oh, you're not sleeping now!"
While all of that is happening, in an unknown location, the hooded man that injected Lua with the strange serum, is talking to one who looks like a superior.
"Sir, today's candidate also perished. He wasn't worthy of our lord's power…"
The superior simply answers, "No matter, continue the search and the tests." he orders, handing the other hooded man, more syringes with the strange purple liquid.
As the hooded man leaves the room, the superior rises from his chair and walks to a statue. That eerie statue is an image of man, enveloped in water and what looks like a spirit behind him, creating vines through the ground. That man has the right hand in the air, with the palm turned up and it looks like it's bending water and the spirit is connecting itself to the man.
The silence is broken by the hooded muscular man, "Don't worry Lord Vaatu. By the time you are revived, the world will be engulfed in chaos. Avatar Korra was able to find the light in the dark, but we will be the ones to bring the darkness out of the light!"
"Just. You. Wait!"