I winced, waking up to the sun shining brightly on my face. My stiff body cracked with every movement. "Ugh..." I groaned out, sitting up.
Katara sat up, looking at me. "You're awake! Guys she's awake!" The rest of them ran over. "I tried to heal you after we got back to our camp, but nothing would work."
"That's because what they injected into me is in my bloodstream, it's coursing through every part of my body." I winced again. "There's no way for you to heal it."
"What did they inject into you?"
"I don't think I'd be able to explain, my mind's a mess right now." I rubbed my temples, feeling a dull headache begin to form. "Whatever that last one was, was the worst of it."
"So what were you even doing there?" Katara asked.
"It's a... long story, I don't really feel like telling it." I stood up, propping myself against a tree. "Man I liked it better as a ghost," I mumbled to myself.
"Wait, so you were the ghost?" Sokka asked.
"Yeah..." I awkwardly laughed, "sorry about scaring you, I just needed some help to get back." I sheepishly scratched my neck. "Thanks by the way."
"You're welcome. My name's Aang." He waved. "This is Katara, Sokka, and Toph," he said pointing at each of them.
"I know," I nodded, "I know all your names," I pointed at the lemur and their giant creature, "except those two."
"Oh, that's Appa," he pointed at the giant one, "and this is Momo." Momo hopped onto my shoulder.
"So you've been watching us?" Katara asked.
"Uh yeah, sorry but I had nothing else to do. I didn't realize what had happened, and what I needed to do until later." A blush spread across my face. "Er, well, earlier technically." Momo hopped back onto Sokka's shoulders.
"How'd you even know we could help?"
"Sokka mentioned something about Aang being the Avatar." I shrugged. "So I just kept bothering you, mostly Sokka, until he did something. Sorry about that again." I winced as a small echo of pain passed through my body.
"Are you okay?" Katara took a step closer to me.
"Oh yea no I'm fine." I waved my hand, taking a deep breath. "Just in a bit of pain. It normally doesn't happen though."
"What do you mean?"
"When it happened before," I sat down against the tree, "the pain didn't linger, it went away at some point. I'm glad I got out of there before they could inject any more into me."
"Why were they injecting stuff into you?"
"That's uh, another story for... not right now. Um, anyway, I'll be fine, I just have to ride it out."
"You know it'd be a lot more helpful if you told us why you were there, and what that stuff was." Katara said.
"Yeah, and how you just became a ghost." Sokka added.
I hummed. "Yeah, I guess you're right." I thought to myself for a second. "Well uh, lets see... I was being experimented on by the Fire Nation." The three of them all stared at me, shocked. Except for Toph "They needed me to test some serum on, see if they could make..." I sighed, "make me into a fire bender, one they can use in the war."
"Wait what? That's impossible, people can't just become benders like that."
I awkwardly rubbed the back of my neck. "That's not entirely true, the first benders essentially just became benders, more like learned. What they did, at least what they told me, was injected dragon blood into me," I continued before they could say anything, "they kept doing that, until eventually it worked."
"Wait you're saying you're a fire bender?" Aang asked, surprised.
"Yeah, but it's not as easy as that. My body isn't used to bending fire. It's way more sensitive to heat, and almost kills me. That's what the second serum was for."
"I see," Aang thought to himself for a second, "then how did you become a ghost?"
"I'm not sure, honestly." I squinted one of my eyes, trying to remember what happened. "I just remember not wanting to be there any more, and suddenly I wasn't, except as a ghost I had almost no memories of what happened. At least until I found my body the first time."
"I never knew the Fire Nation was doing something like this..." Katara said quietly.
"I don't think anyone did. I was the only one they were testing, if it all went well, or if it didn't, someone else would begin the testing too."
"Oh, I almost forgot, what's your name?" Aang suddenly asked.
"Oh, Y/n, yeah," I nodded.
"So, where do you live, we can take you home if you want, Appa can fly anywhere...almost."
I frowned, looking down. "I don't remember. I don't remember anything before a couple of years ago."
"Oh... I'm sorry."
"No, no it's okay, as far as I know, the place I was from probably sucked anyway." I tilted my head, getting an idea. "What if I just stayed with you?" I suggested.
Just before Aang was about to speak, Sokka pulled him aside, whispering quietly. It was still loud enough for me to hear some of what they were saying. "You can't just let her stay, she could be evil, we don't know."
"I don't think she's evil Sokka, just look at her," they both glanced back at me, "besides, she can help us."
"I can hear you both," I said, making them look back at me. They blushed, embarrassed. "It's okay, you don't have to take me with you, I can find somewhere else to go."
"No, you can stay, right Sokka?" Katara kicked Sokka's leg, giving him a thin smile. He glared at her, rubbing his leg. Katara glared back at him.
"Alright fine." Sokka rolled his eyes.
I smiled. "Thanks, but you really didn't have to..."
"Nonsense, it wouldn't be right to just leave you," Katara walked over to a pot that was over a fire, "besides, you're in no shape to be walking around, you need to rest."
"Well I mean, we don't exactly rest that much," Sokka mumbled to her.
She glared at him. "Anyway, I'm gonna get dinner started, you need to eat something, you're pretty thin."
I looked down at my body and arms. "I've always been this thin though," I mumbled. She didn't seem to hear me.