Regrets (Complete)

Chapter Five

Rei kicked the chair, satisfied as she watched it smash a part against the wall of the cell. They had dropped the bombshell of a revelation on her and then just left, refusing to answer any of her questions.

She dropped to her knees and hugged her arms against herself. Her parents were dead. Murdered. By the Avatar... It didn't seem possible. The Avatar didn't kill people. Or maybe it was just covered up so well that the world was completely oblivious to anything other than the image of peace the Avatar represented.

She was so confused. And angry. She had never felt so angry in her life. It just didn't make sense.

No, it literally didn't make sense.

As she got her emotions under control she started to actually think about everything. This man. This man that had kidnapped her said Avatar Aang had killed her parents. But she was a teacher and taught her students about the history of the Avatars every year. Avatar Aang had already died before she was even born.

And if Avatar Korra had been responsible she would have only been a child. And why wouldn't he have said Korra instead of Aang. Her head started to pound again as her confusion increased. She let out another yell of frustration, throwing one of the legs to her chair across the room. She rested her head on her knees, trying to keep up with her racing thoughts.

"Perhaps I can be of assistance?"

Rei jumped as she looked around the still empty cell. The voice was sing songy and light but there was something unsettling about it.

"Who's there?"

There was silence for a moment and Rei thought maybe she was actually losing her mind but then there was a small pop and a glowing green head popped through the wall. Rei jumped up, backing away with a yelp. The next second the rest of the spirit appeared, looking almost like an elephant rat crossed with lemur. It was actually kind of cute and Rei tried to calm herself down. She knew that offending the wrong spirit could have dire consequences.

"S-sorry. You startled me."

"That's quite fine. I should have knocked first, I suppose."

The spirit jumped into the air, their steps unimpeded by the lack of ground to walk on. They walked over to Rei and floated in front of her face keeping unnerving eye contact.

"So? May I help?"

"I'm not sure how you can-"

"The past is my specialty. I can give you the answers to all the questions I know are bouncing around in here."

They brushed a paw against her forehead and she felt a strange tingly feeling where it made contact. She knew she should probably be more cautious but this spirit didn't seem to be malicious. In fact, it seemed like they were just bored and Rei's inner turmoil was just a way to pass their time.

She looked to them and subtly nodded her head. The spirit gave a whoop of joy as they did a loop in the air. Before she knew what was happening the whole room seemed to glow before disappearing entirely.

___

Rei opened her eyes.

She was no longer in a rickety wooden cell. She now appeared to be standing in the middle of a busy hospital reception area. She watched as several healers seemed to be going in and out of the same room. A tall man in air nomad robes was pacing nearby, looking up every time someone emerged from the room.

Rei walked to the room and pushed open the door. Everything was in pure chaos, healers nearly yelling at each other in obvious frustration as they worked on their patient. Rei moved near a corner, out of the way as she watched. She couldn't quite see the woman on the bed but she was unresponsive and there was blood everywhere.

"She's out! Jia! Come take her, she's not breathing."

Rei was moving before her own mind could catch up. It was only when she caught sight of herself in the reflection of a window that she figured out what was going on. She was seeing this particular memory through the eyes of the woman she had always called her mother.

A wet and slimey baby was thrust into her arms and she turned away from the bloody scene, focusing on the child. Her eyes kept darting over her shoulders as she cleaned off the baby. The others were distracted, trying to save the mother. Her heartbeat was racing as she quickly wrapped up the baby, moving to the door at the back of the room.

"I need more space, I'll be back!"

No one seemed to pay her any attention as she pushed through the door into the back hallway. She made her way to the first empty room she could find and unwrapped the baby, carefully pushing on her tiny chest and pushing air into her lungs by covering her nose and mouth with her own and blowing out.

At the same time she summoned a trickle of glowing blue healing water and ran it over the babe, not sure what she could heal but figuring it couldn't hurt. A couple minutes went by and she nearly cried out when the tiny body jerked a bit, arms and legs slowly flailing as she cried out. Jia wrapped her back up in the blanket, bouncing her up and down and willing her to not cry too loudly.

The babe quieted as if the spirits had heard her pleas and Jia checked frantically that she was still breathing. She was, a butterfly flutter of a heartbeat going strong. Looking around the room she carefully set the infant in an empty file box, tucking it out of sight under a table.

She took a moment, rubbing her hands through her hair before taking a deep breath and walking back out into the hallway and through the doors to the room that held the baby's true mother.

Things seemed to have taken a turn for the worse when she entered. Her superior caught sight of her, the man's eyes more weary than she had ever seen.

"Jia! Is the baby-"

"I tried everything I could. She didn't make it."

He cursed, the first time she had ever heard such profanity from him but didn't question her further. He yelled at one of the other healers to go update the father before returning his attention the woman on his bed. Jia finally caught a sight of her and Rei took in a sharp breath at the same time her false mother did. Her face was younger and hair darker but the two jagged scars down her cheek were as recognizable as ever.

Jia immediately backed out of the room again, her breathing becoming erratic as she pushed back into the room she had left the babe in. She quickly grabbed her and walked down the hall in the opposite direction as quickly as she could.

She could just bring her back, tell them the baby was fine and everything would be okay. But then he would know she had failed. He would punish her. Or worse, kill her. No one paid her any attention as she got to the stairs at the back of the hospital that no one but staff generally used.

It was only when she had pushed out the door to the back alley that she let out a breath of relief. She carefully pulled back the blanket and looked at the perfect baby girl's face. She couldn't risk bringing her back inside but she didn't know what Kurai had planned for the girl. Now that she knew whose child this was she had a feeling it was nothing good.

She couldn't let him have her either.

And after all, she had always wanted a child of her own.

"Don't worry. I'll protect you. My beautiful Rei."