Avatar Crossroads: Crucible Prologue

Earth. Fire. Air. Water.

Our world has changed greatly in the past hundred years. I was a little girl when the Hundred-Year War was brought to its end by Avatar Aang. With his and Firelord Zuko’s leadership, the earth kingdom colonies became the United Republic of Nations. I grew up in the new world our Avatar had helped to forge. And as I grew, my family grew with me, living through the changes within the past seventy five years… I had lived to see the rise of another Avatar, Avatar Korra of the Southern Water Tribe, who valiantly guided our world through turmoil at every end.
Much had transpired since the awakening of the spirit portals, and the fall of Kuvira… I know this because of how personally connected to me it was… how it had little to do with the Avatar. My grand-daughter, an airbender named Aimee and her friends uncovered and defeated an Equalist conspiracy in the Earth Kingdom city of Shaylim. They freed a desert of its own inner turmoil and allowed a lost outcast to realize her destiny and save her people from the clutches a mad warlord. Within that desert a lost and forgotten hollow air nomad city that was safeguarded by Avatar Aang was rediscovered, but discarded once again to history. And in the Northern Water Tribe, they brought peace to my son in law’s family, and brought a shadowy organization into the light… reuniting a mother with her child for however briefly it was.
These stories, as tall and wild as they sounded weren’t without sacrifice. At every end Aimee and her friends suffered, and struggled. But in the end, as unknown as their actions were, I truly believe they had helped to change the world much like the Avatar has.
But now a dark figure from my past has risen, assuming control of the group that had been responsible for so much of my granddaughter’s suffering. A group known as the Purist Strikers, a wicked organization once dedicated to the separation of cultures, and the destruction of the air nomads. Now their goals aren’t so simple, and I am saddened to say their goals might bring the end to the world Avatar Aang created. Aimee is not their target this time, but another person dear to me is… a boy haunted by the Equalist Revolution.
This is the story of how this boy, his friends, family, and the Avatar saved the world from my mistake.

The Firenation harbor held a whiff of foreboding to us as our ship pulled back into it, having left the same space nearly two months ago, nothing had changed in the slightest. My hands hung to the railing of the space, fingers fidgeting as I saw someone who stood there, among the crowd of workers. Her eyes were a bright amber color, complementing her deep red robes, and porcelain skin tone, much different from my darker tones. She was older than me, blonde hair draped down her neck, looking to begin to change color to white.
I had expected her to have more of a smile, but instead… all I saw was confusion, studying me and the man to my side. No doubt she was curious about two more of our companions who she could not see among us. The old man’s green eyes gave me a sympathetic look as our ship docked.
“Kid… if you don’t want to face her”-
“No, I have to.” I replied, “I owe her that much.” The old man nodded, sighing.
“Too bad that rich-kid isn’t here,” Chief (what we called him) sighed, “She’s his master, right?”I looked away,
“I’m gonna talk to her, try to explain what happened, you stay in the ship with… with”-
“Got it,” the man replied, “I’ll get the case ready to move, don’t worry.” I nodded to my companion, approaching the plank leading down to the harbor, I stepped down there, standing on solid land for the first time in three days. The old woman’s eyes remained on me as I stepped closer to her, features became more noticeable, like the patterns of her robe and the wrinkling in her skin.
She looked so much like my friend.
I realized I didn’t have it in me to face her, not like this… not while the pain was this intense.
“Lorik…” She muttered, orange eyes on me. “I’m glad to see you’re alright.”
“Hello Sifu,” I uttered, scratching my neck. The woman wasn’t my teacher, but I looked up to her as one. “It’s been a while, almost a month”- I hadn’t tracked the days, I simply assumed that was how long it had been.
“When I received your hawk, I was almost surprised, didn’t expect you all to come back so soon.”
That’s the word that killed me… All, as in all of us, when in reality it was only half of us.
“Why didn’t I see my student on the ship, why isn’t he down here with us”-
“Silas is fine… I’m fine” I lied, holding no clue to where our lost friend could be. He was on our ship one moment, but the next, he was gone… and for good reason. The woman nodded, as if I alleviated some sort of symptom.
“That’s good to hear, I had a strange feeling a couple days ago, but… it’s good to hear that was just a feeling,” I turned more, “I’m sure Alana took good care of you three then”- A chill went down my spine at the mention of that name.
“Sifu, I”-
“Where is she?” I paused, “I didn’t see her on the boat, and all I saw were you and Mr. Chun.” I frowned, unable to say anything. For the longest time I was silent, leaving the woman confused even more than she was at the beginning of our conversation. I couldn’t articulate the words in any way to explain what had happened. “Is something wrong? You seem different.” I wouldn’t dare look her in the eyes.
“…” I tried to focus on something else, wishing for the moment to simply disappear, but I knew it wouldn’t. The fidgeting came back, and I couldn’t control it.
“Lorik, talk to me… where is she?” The woman asked, and I scowled, “Where’s Alana?” It was then I turned, looking back to the boat, Chun stood there, having picked something up, a bundle, covered in bandages, tightened all around it. He seemed to have figured I was taking too long. A confused look came upon the woman’s face, eying the bundle, I couldn’t hold it back anymore… seeing a look of terror come upon her.
“I’m so sorry, Mizuki.”

I shook away from the day-dream… one of the many moments that had been ingrained into my subconscious. It was as if I was reliving the same moment again and again. But that was fine, that was my cross to bear, no one else’s. I wiped sweat from my brow, as if it wipe away remnants of the distant memory. It helped to look away at something, something that would ease the pain. In this case, a photograph resting on top of the desk I was at, beside it were some maps I was looking through that were important to my work. I was the leader of a very secretive research group. we were stationed in the Southern Water Tribe, hidden within the Everstorm, which had oddly become more active ever since the creation of the third spirit portal.
Much had happened since the day I walked away from Mizuki, nearly twenty-eight years had passed.
I remained focused on the picture, on it was the four of us, me, Nora and our kids. Despite the termination of our marriage years before, Nora wanted the picture to be taken. As a statement of our dedication to our family, despite our own ruptured bond. I was thankful to have it now, to pretend it was the truth, that we were always happy before the accident.
To my side of the picture, a young darker skinned boy who looked much like me stood there with his mother’s hand over his shoulder. His sister had the same complexion but wild orange hair flickering like down her neck like a fire, maintaining the same color as her mother’s but not the order Nora’s hair had. He was ten, she was six… we had a couple more pictures like this from later periods, but I liked this one the most.
My hand grasped at the glass frame, feeling the pain slip away, when I then heard something, swift rumblings. It was the feeling of a tremor, as if the compound was shaking from the outside. I stood up, bracing myself on the desk, a man hurried in through the door, looking to me, frantically.
“Dr. Namakura!” he fearfully begun, “I”-
“I know, they found us.” I replied, arms crossed, “Had to happen at some point.”
The day when ‘he’ and his Strikers would find me.
“What do we do?” I eyed him, “I just looked outside, their numbers are massive, and they took out our outer guards.” I scowled.
We had intended to consider moving our operation a week ago, it was a reason why we were beginning to downsize on guard placements… to draw less attention. But now we were compromised.
I approached the microphone attached to a nearby wall, hastily beginning, “Members of the facility, do not panic, we are being invaded by the Strikers… all bending personal are to retaliate, and all nonbending need to destroy our research, we cannot risk losing it to them.” As I finished the sentence, I felt the compound shaking again, throwing me into the wall why the main hit the ground. The frame nearly fell from the desk, until I caught it. “We all knew this day we coming… so fight, and evacuate… you all remember the plan in case of invasion.” I finished, dropping the microphone. The man on the ground had a slightly goofy smile, looking up to me.
“Nice speech sir.” I nodded, before referring him to the maps at my side, “Hm?”
“Burn them, Setchim.” I replied, the man frowned.
“But what of the plan? And the colony?”
“Don’t worry, we sent copies to the others, if all goes well… this’ll only set us back a couple months.” The man nodded, while I eyed the picture frame in my hands, “I have all I need” assistant obeyed, hands pushing forward, bright orange flames ebbed from his palms, the maps charred and turned to ash, as did the wooden desk. I referred him to the book case and he obeyed, it all vanished as I approached the door leading out of the room and into a white and blue hallway, walls were made of ice while the flooring was tiling.
Setchim followed me, eyes widening as we saw striker forces battling against more of our security. It was like a scene in those new war movers. The strikers still looked rag-tag, though with a strange sort of uniformity akin to the Earth Empire era. They used different elements, fighting my guards and research crew. I swiftly got behind cover, Setchim did the same, edging up from cover to expel a flame towards one of the attackers, throwing them off base, surprised.
My crew looked thankful as I eyed the invaders, ducking out of cover to grip a chunk of ice from the wall, firing it towards another striker. Another eyed me, surprised.
“That’s the target!” Setchim shot more flames to him, throwing him to the ground as one of our earthbenders pulled up tiling to trip the invaders. One fell, while I pulled more ice from the walls, a chunk formed as my hands circled together. I shot my foot down, pulling my hands apart, and like it, the chunk threw apart, pieces shot forth in all directions, taking out the last of our enemies for now. They fell to the ground, knocked out or dead… I didn’t care which.
The researchers were thankful, while I scowled, noticing two of them were on the ground, dead. And a few more were wounded, limping and leaning on the walls.
They weren’t kidding around here.
“Thank you Doctor!”- I crossed my arms, eying them,
“Any word on how the other areas of the base are?”
“A lot of us got out even before your message started.” The self-proclaimed leader of the group replied, I smiled a little. We were very prepared for this, sadly not in the way I wanted. “Don’t worry, we’ve taken care of most of the research, the Strikers will have a hard time replicating what we did here.”
“They won’t be interested in that at all,” I then replied, causing a slight glimmer of a frown, “But others will.” The building shook more, and we turned, looking to the sound of footsteps. More of ‘his’ troops were invading.
I dug forward, looking to see as striker fighters were going towards us. My hands clenched, and I pulled, gripping the walls of the hallway and pulling them together. Sure it wasn’t marketed to be a good idea, but I was livid over losing more of my staff. It shook together like an avalanche, covering the strikers in collapsed snow, throwing much of it into the air. I heaved silently before looking to the others.
“The ones who survived will break through,”
“Then what do we do?”  A man asked, Setchim turned.
“We can take ‘em, let them come”-
“No,” I ordered, “All of you are to evacuate, I can’t have your deaths hang on my conscience.” They stared at me, wide eyed in their white lab coats. “It sounds like most of research had been handled, so I need you to take the underground passage and get out of here while you still can.” One eyed me as we heard swift shifting through the snowy debris.
“Aren’t you coming with us, Doctor?”
“I’m afraid not… You heard what they said, they’re here for me.” Confusion swept them, as I turned, “What are you waiting for? Leave!” they obeyed, moving while Setchim remained glued to my side. “Go”-
“No sir, I’m not afraid of a fight.” I turned.
“It’s not your destiny for you to be taken by my enemies.” I replied, hand on his shoulder, “If you want to help me… then get our people out of here.”
“…” Setchim looked away, scowling at the order. “Very well… give them hell, Lorik.” I agreed, and watched as he led them out.
If I was captured, Setchim would continue the operation. I had half the mind to send him to find my son, knowing he may become a target, but I reasoned our adversaries weren’t interested in him.
Much like… how I was never interested in him.
The firebender and the others hurried away as I looked back to the frozen rubble, sensing that they were almost through.
The moment I sensed he was gone, I squatted lightly, scooping my hands forwards and pulling away. Finally I pushed forward, and like a pressurized machine, the rubble heaved forward, blasting through the attackers. Two waterbenders evaded, one created sharp twin icicle blades from his wrists while another was preparing to use more long distance methods.
I feinted to the left, drawing the close combat enthusiast to the side, while I swiftly bent water to my right hand and pushed on the man’s back. Water shot into him, throwing him into the wall, which I swiftly gripped, combining with pieces of ice to throw towards the other waterbender.
She jumped out of the way, pulling ice from the walls to attempt to trip me up, but I predicted that, gripping the broken pieces of ice that came from the icicle blade and shot it forward, managing a hit and throwing the woman down. The waterbender I threw was back up, raging towards me, but I bent more water to my wrist as he jumped to me. A thin icicle formed upon my knuckle as I evaded his attack, jabbing into his neck, the man paused at the sudden bolt of pain. I swiftly gripped more ice from the wall, creating a sort of club, slamming it effortlessly through the man’s head, hitting and causing the attacker to pass out, I noticed drops of blood coming from his neck.
Against my better judgement I bent down, pulling water to the space and healing it. As I finished, I heard something a sort of laughter. I turned away, seeing someone, a woman who was roughly my son’s age… that was the only thing they had in common.
“Wow, I knew dogs were loyal, but… honorable?” I studied her, she had smooth almost shiny black hair that could lead down to her waist, pulled together in a pony-tail. Her skin reminded me of Mizuki’s, white as porcelain… but it wasn’t pure, it looked ghastly, as if turned whiter by ill temperament. Her clothes was clearly suited for the Southern Tribe’s climate, a form-fitting red coat covered her, and hands wore sleeveless gloves. The coat was adorned with weapons… kunai knives, shuriken and other such kit looking a lot like the kind used in ancient fire nation folk-lore. Not Kemurikage, but something else.
She almost looked feral, like a wild animal… unpredictable and untamed.
I didn’t say anything, as she stepped forward arrogantly, for some reason something smelled off putting about her.
“Who are you?” I asked, no doubt she was a striker, I could tell from the black three pronged circle tattoo over her exposed skin leading to her neck.
“Does it matter? All you need to know is I’m here for you, old man… and all the people who just died, were because of you.”
“I’ll give you one warning, girl, leave now… and I won’t have to kill you.” Her grin heightened.
“As if, I am not in the mood to disappoint the new boss.” She simply replied, “Besides… I know you’re bluffing… dog.” My eyes remained locked on her as I couldn’t help but smile slightly.
“Well… you have me there.” The nonbender’s finger itched the shuriken in her hand as she spiked it forward, I pulled towards myself, blocking with ice and then swiftly fragmenting the piece and firing icicles into the animal. She seemed to predict that, rolling out of the way of my icicles and throwing more shurikens. I deflected two of them as she kicked off the wall, drawing closer and cutting forward with her kunai. I barely evaded the swipe, recognizing the smell… it was laced with black pythonaconda venom… a dangerous poison that I knew not to mess with. I bent more water to my hand, creating a blade to block the dagger, she growled, looking at me, irises blood red… a look of unjustifiable hate covered her.
“You’re not gonna make this easy, are you?” I broke the lock, jumping back and firing stray shots of ice towards her. She evaded, as I attempted to keep my distance, creating a thin wall of ice to throw at her, but instead she simply flipped over it, perfect precision with her hands. As she landed I shot more ice towards her, one finally managed to hit and threw her back.
I then saw more of her troops approaching from behind both her and myself, ready to attack… as much as I could try and handle her, I wasn’t a one man army… I looked back, briefly… wondering if Setchim and the others had fully escaped. I was out-numbered by them all.
… And so I decided to do something stupid.
I stepped down harshly, pulling towards myself, the nonbender eyed me, confused when from my grip the hallway shook one final time. I pulled swiftly, and with haste the walls fell apart, coming down on us all in a sudden avalanche of ice.  I blanked out that moment, unable to comprehend what had just happened, what I had just done… tearing apart the only home I had known in the past three years.
Everything went silent in the blast, I couldn’t comprehend my surroundings… everything was dark and cold. The quiet remained for the longest time… I had no idea if I would die or not, though I knew anything would be preferable to being captured. I had a pocket of air, allowing me to breath for what felt like an hour, when I leaned upwards, coming to from my hour long coma. I dug myself out using my bending, discovering how dark everything had gotten. Firebenders were everywhere, holding orange flames gleaming in their hands… they were going through the destruction I had wrought… rescuing their own people and no doubt looking for me.
The nonbender animal was among them, standing beside a man in black… the darkness made him harder to notice… he gave off an eerie feeling, one of de ja vu.
He was a firebender, and he too created a torch of flames, but instead of orange, they were a wicked shade of green.
“I thought you said you could take him”-
“This is not my fault, I can’t help that he’s suicidal”-
“I needed him alive,”-
“I know that, don’t lecture me!” she barked, like a child that did not get her way. I eyed them, weakly… the cold had gotten to me, I could feel my joints going numb, my own motor functions growing dull. The moon stared down at us, almost hidden by the everstorm.
“How many of his people do you reckon got away?”
“Not too many, we had some people follow them in the tunnel, but they were stopped.”
“…” The man was much older than her, twice her age, but few years older than me as well. His voice was as arrogant as I remembered it to be…
“Why’s he important anyways? He’s just a stupid dog like the rest of them”- I could see a few water tribe members eying the woman’s statement, but didn’t dare to challenge her.
“I’d be careful with that tongue Victoria, you wouldn’t want it to be cut away.” She scowled,
“But you could have taken him yourself… if this is personal then”-
“It’s something that goes well beyond personal.”
As I softly stood there, I then watched as the man turned, looking to me. I tried to do something, to attack in some way, but instead… I grew too weak, and I fell to the ground, passing out from the cold.
“He’s alive,” this Victoria murmured, “How convenient.” The man didn’t respond, he stepped towards me, with a few other strikers approaching.
“Good news, we found what we’re looking for.” The man turned, “get the vehicles ready to go when the rescue is finished.”
“…” I tried to talk, but I couldn’t say anything, as my eyes remained open and the man stood over me, hand holding his flames. It held a sinister quality to it, illuminating his face. I studied him, looking to see amber eyes look much of the firenation… “Si…” I muttered weakly, he smiled while more of his men approached me.
“Lorik, it’s been a long time…” He muttered almost sinisterly. “How’s the wife and kids?” I scowled, “Sorry, sore subject?”
“Silas…” And he smiled, eyes gleaming with amber.
“Good, you remember me… that’s excellent because we have much to talk about, old friend.”
And everything faded to darkness.

AVATAR CROSSROADS: CRUCIBLE