Reborn In Water || ATLA

A Nightmare To Remember

"A nightmare to remember, I'd never be the same." - Dream Theater

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"Yeah and I'm the Earth Queen." Aelita scoffed. "What's next, Zuko's gonna suddenly decide to retire from royalty and open a tea shop?"

The blue man in Fire Nation robes crooked his head and looked at her confused. "I beg your pardon?" He asked.

"This dream just gets stranger by the minute," Aelita said with a chuckle. "I have got to stop having nightcaps before bed." She muttered to herself.

"Excuse me?"

"Nothing."

The man before her was suddenly somber. "You aren't in a dream Aelita Kenshin. You're in the Spirit World."

"Next you're gonna tell me I'm a waterbender." She laughed once more, folding her arms. There were only two people in this world that could bend more than one element. One they were hunting, and the other was long since dead.

"Well, technically..."

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Nations away, the young Avatar was walking back towards the village in which he had started his encounter with the spirit named Hei Bai. To no avail, he couldn't make the black and white spirit leave the town or its people alone peacefully. The spirit reacted violently, destroying everything in its path and it even took Sokka the same as it had other villagers the past several nights.

Aang tried his best to follow Hei Bai and bring Sokka back, but it was as if they disappeared into thin air. How was he supposed to face Katara without her brother? She had counted on him to save her family and he failed miserably.

The monk was too busy worrying about his friends to realize that he was no longer tangible. Unknowingly, Aang had taken the steps into his first journey into the Spirit World just like many Avatar and Akira alike had before him.

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"Well, technically what?" Aelita questioned the man. She was beginning to get annoyed, with herself more than him. Why the hell couldn't she wake up?

"Technically you are a waterbender."

"I need to start meditating at night like Iroh told me." Aelita groaned loudly, throwing her hands in the air. "Get all of whatever this is out of my system so I can get a peaceful night's sleep for once."

"Aelita, you need to listen to me." The man was serious again. "You aren't dreaming, that I promise you. You are indeed in the Spirit World, and you can waterbend, you just haven't realized that yet."

Mushu scurried out of the man's arms and sat directly in front of Aelita on his back paws, holding his front ones in front of his chest. He chartered at her wildly, trying to make her listen.

"If you don't believe me, then at least let Mushu show you. He is your animal guide after all."

"He's a fire ferret who made his way onto our ship." She argued in disbelief, fed up with the nonsense.

"Then reach down and touch him if you're so skeptical, at this point in your life what do you have to lose?"

"Plenty." Aelita snapped.

Zuko. She had Zuko, and all she wanted right now was to get back to him.

"Just trust me. All I want is to help you avoid the same mistakes that I made all those decades ago."

"Fine. Fine." Aelita rolled her eyes before crouching down in front of Mushu. "Maybe then I'll finally wake up."

Hell, maybe he was right, she didn't have anything to lose because she had lost her sanity a long time ago. She reached out and laid a hand on the ferret's head and found herself transported back in time.