Forged In Fire || ATLA

Blackbird

"You ain't got no one to hold you, you ain't got no one to care. If you'd only understand dear, nobody wants you anywhere." - India Jean-Jacques

TW: Heavy themes of distressing mental health.

🌊 ⛰ 🔥 🌪
Previously

Fire was an element that either commanded respect or consumed fear.

It was an element that harnessed the ability to both give life and take it, and Aelita Kenshin had seen both firsthand during her sixteen years of life.

She had created the controlled flame that warmed a laboring mother's bedside, had held her hand and coached her through the contractions as she brought her child into the physical world, and then used the fire she harnessed at her fingertips to cut through the umbilical cord while the newborn nursed in the comforting heat.

She had watched the light fade from her father's eyes the very moment raw flame burned clean through his chest until it fried his beating heart still inside its prison of flesh. She had borne witness to the slaughter of the old and ancient spirit of the moon at the hands of a firebender she had known her entire life. And she had felt the way a person's insides gripped her tightly after she herself had thrust a fist full of the rawest fire that she could produce clean through their very fucking lungs.

Maybe her own death was meant to serve as her punishment for all her sins and shortcomings as a friend, a firebender, and the host of the Great Shadow. As her physical world faded away, Aelita couldn't recall how exactly she had gotten here but none of that mattered anymore as she found herself lost in an internal, forever darkness, nothing but the glow of a single ember in the distance to light her way. This was death and it was surprisingly peaceful, even if she didn't deserve it. Aelita hadn't realized just how badly she had often craved this day, this moment until now. She was tired, so damn tired, and she didn't want to fight away her own demons anymore.

She was vaguely aware of the deafening silence. Prior to this a thousand different voices, man and woman, old and new had spoken somewhere in the back of her mind and as a familiar black blade pierced her chest, they had slowly begun to fade away one by one. She was left now with nothing but darkness and fire. She wasn't sure how long she had just stood there in the vast expanse of nothing, but with not a damn thing left to lose, she finally started her journey towards the now growing light in the distance. She felt lighter here and now as she walked, hollow and empty as if she were missing the weight of a presence she had carried her entire life, but she didn't question it. She was tired, so damn tired, and she didn't deserve to fight anymore.

The light of the fire guiding her journey grew brighter and brighter with every step she made. The glow was blinding, nothing beyond the flame as she approached but pure white light. This was death and she was ready to welcome it with open arms.

"Aelita?"

A boy's familiar voice called her name just before the firebender could step willingly into the light. For the quickest of moments, she debated on ignoring the sound to just keep going but she couldn't. Aelita turned to find the face of a bald-headed monk staring back at her, tattoos of blue decorating his skin.

"Aelita?" He spoke again and the sound wracked through her like the beating of a drum. Everything came crashing back to her as she looked at him in his sad grey eyes.

"Aang?" She whispered as she stepped towards him and away from the light. He held out a trembling hand and suddenly she was running. "Aang!" She cried louder as she sprinted hard away from the light and towards the boy she had vowed to follow anywhere in this world.

But fate was cruel, and she couldn't reach him, couldn't grasp his outstretched hand no matter how hard she tried. "Aang!" She sobbed, painfully aware of the distance between them and the tears that stained her skin.