70 Chapter 70 - The Spirit World

A couple days after the prison escape, the gang are flying in the sky bored out of their minds. Especially Seras, as she had not spent such a long time doing nothing before.

"Do you think that cloud looks like Momo?" Sokka points at a cloud in the sky.

"Speaking of clouds, how do you think it feels to walk on them?" Katara asks her own while doing the same activity.

"I don't know, let's find out." Aang states as he takes his glider out.

He glides through multiple clouds before landing back on Appa soaking wet.

"It turns out clouds are made of water." He smiles before air bending himself dry.

They all look at him weirdly before Katara notices something ahead.

"Hey, What is that?" The others look to where she is.

"It's like a scar." Sokka describes the massive brunt portion of the forest.

They land and Sokka notices tracks belonging to fire nation soldiers while Aang is looking everywhere with a despondent look.

As Katara was cheering him up, a man's voice drifts over and they all look in the direction it came from. A frail old man stands there with a shocked look as he discovers Aang is the avatar.

The man begs for them to come with him and they oblige. They reach a village that looks like it's been destroyed multiple times in rapid succession.

The man describes that the destruction is the work of a spirit named Hei Bai that comes out every night destroying their homes and kidnapping their families. The old man then requests for Aang to try and appease the spirit.

Aang agree with an not so confident tone which worries Katara. She asks him about it and discovers that Aang knows next to nothing about his duties about being the avatar.

That night the families hold up in the main building at the center of town while aang is outside waiting for the spirit to come. Sokka is angry that he can't do anything to help and complains.

The spirit comes like a wrecking ball and starts to destroy the buildings while aang is trying to speak to it. It doesn't listen and wrecks more homes while moving at great speed. Aang has had enough and jumps on to the roof of one building before yelling at it.

"I command you to turn around now!" The spirit stops and turns to face aang.

Aang smiles hoping it worked but the spirit bitch slaps him off the roof and the force throws him to the ground.

Sokka had enough and runs outside, katara tried to go after him but the villagers stop her. He throws his boomerang at the spirit but it bounces off its leg showing how ineffective it was.

Sokka then runs up to Aang who is yelling for him to go back.

"We'll fight him together Aang."

"But I don't want to fight him if I don't-" before he finishes the spirit comes up to Sokka and makes a grabbing motion. The two boys don't know what happened when Seras' voice sounds out.

"Now, I wouldn't hear the end of it if I didn't do anything while my friend's brother was taken." She says while holding Sokka by the collar.

"You can let me down now." He is annoyed at how easily she is lifting him up.

"Fine, but go back inside. I don't need to hear how I let you get kidnapped by a four-armed panda."

"Panda? Whatever, I'll go back." Sokka asks before stating as he realized it's not the time.

"Seras, you should go back as well. I'll handle this."

"Really? Because it seems like you have no idea what's happening. Let's do it this way." Seras jumps off the roof and lands in front of the spirit.

The spirit tilts its head in confusion before Seras raises her arms in the air

"What are you doing?"

"Helping you to learn how to do your job." She lets the spirit grabs her body and it dashes away.

Aang follows after them on his glider reaching the Area where the forest is burned. Aang tried to reach for seras who doesn't reach back and just as he is about to touch her hand, the spirit disappears. This makes Aang lose concentration causing him to fall out of the sky.

As soon as the spirit disappeared, it reappeared in an unknown jungle surrounded by insects and other creatures that inhabit it.

The trees are massive and look to be thousands of years old. A few seconds later, The spirit puts her down before running off into the distance.

"Well, not exactly what I would call the best location for our first date. But it will have to do." Seras shrugs before finding a relatively dry area and sitting down.

"If all goes like the show, then I have a day to see if I can learn anything new by being in the spirit world." She mumbles to no one as she closes her eyes and relaxes.

Meanwhile, on a ship near the area where the prison used to be. Men are being fished out of the water looking like they've been adrift for days. If seras was hear she would recognize one of them as the pompous warden that was thrown off of the structure.

"Explain yourself. Why have you called for my aid?" Zuko asks with a glare.

The warden explains the situation and when he reaches the part about the avatar, zuko interrupts him.

"The avatar was here!? Where did he go?"

"He went north, but I believe you should be wary of the girl that is with him."

"You mean the water bender? She's no trouble." Zuko states before walking away.

"N-No! Not her, the other one! She destroyed the entire prison in a few minutes with her fire bending. I've never seen anything like it!" The man stutters our in fear while remembering the incident.

"What?"

"Did this girl have blonde hair and big- uh big...." Iroh begins to ask before he can't finish the sentence.

"Yes! She made this humongous ball of fire that changed colors. Almost like the rainbow, then it got smaller and before I knew it a huge beam of light went into the sky and a humongous explosion occurred right after. The prison was completely gone and the ocean had a gaping hole in it. I almost drowned when the water receded into it."

"Really?" Iroh asks with surprise.

"What is it uncle?"

"That girl might be the strongest fire-bender in history. We can't fight her."

"What are you saying? She's with the avatar and I have to capture him." Zuko waves his caution off and walks away.

"Oh my dear nephew, why can't you see the bigger picture?" Iroh mutters while looking into the sky.

It's been a few hours since seras was sent to the spirit world. She is leaning against the tree chewing on a leaf because she has tested everything she wanted to.

'It seems that I was right. The reason why people couldn't bend while in the spirit world was because they were merely their spirits. You need both mind and body to bend.' She thinks as she produces a small flame on her finger.

The flame looks normal for a few seconds when she shows a face of concentration. It changes from a normal fire to different shapes. It's relatively easy until she tries to make shapes that have many small angles and features.

"The best I can do is a ten sided shape. It's frustrating that I haven't been able to progress pas this for a few days." She mumbles to herself when she hears a few leaves rustling.

In a fraction of a second she disappears and reappears behind the bush to find a large wolf. The wolf jumped forward in shock before turning around and growling at her.

Seras smiles a little when she notices that he has two blue eyes on his chest. She feels like someone or something is staring into her soul when the wolf runs away. It's showing a fearful expression and running like a predator is about to kill it.

When seras first saw the wolf she immediately remembered where she had seen it before.

'That was the spirit wolf that obeys the Mother Of Faces. I thought she was in the real world?' She chases after the wolf.

It only takes two seconds to catch up and the wolf's fur stands on end before it growls once again.

This time the growl was weak like it was begging.

"I'm not going to hurt you, buddy." She slowly walks closer and raises her hands in a sign of good faith.

The wolf's eyes show skepticism as seras gets closer. Eventually she touches its head and the wolf has its eyes closed, like It's waiting for her to hurt it.

"There there. It must be tough living here." She pats its head before scratching it behind the ear.

The wolf's foot begins to move by itself as it hums in contentment. A few second later it opens its eyes and jumps back like it just did something it should never have done.

"What's wrong?" Seras asks in worry when the dog whines like a child being punished.

She feels a presence behind her and sees a giant figure coming out of a lake. It looks like a woman, but upon closer inspection, the 'woman' has five white glowing faces and a body made of what looks like vines.

Behind the figure are many floating faces of different nationality and ages. They all glow blue and have a haunting aura about them.

The dog begins whining once again and it looks like it's having a conversation with the figure. A few minutes pass and the figure looks at seras with a contemplative haze despite seras not being able to see its eyes.

"I thank you for not hurting him, Stranger from another dimension." An ethereal voice like it's coming from angels sounds out from all the faces.

".....you don't have to thank me for not doing something. Plus, I couldn't hurt such a cute dog." She pets the wolf's head once more making it wag its tail.

"You don't seems surprised." The Mother Of Faces States.

"About your appearance or the fact that you knew where I'm from?"

"Both." The figure replies as it shrinks itself to a more human size.

"The first is because I've seen you before and was prepared. Although you look a little different. The second is because I know you're An ancient spirit probably from when the world was created, I expect that comes with certain knowledge."

"I see." The spirit mumbles as it glides around seras.

She can't see its feet and it's floating on top of mist. A few minutes pass and the spirit continues to stare in silence.

"Do you mind if I ask something?" Seras asks.

"No, you may."

"Is there any place that I can practice my bending?"

"Your bending? But you see to be plenty powerful already...oh, I see. Yes, follow me." It begins to ask why when it realizes something.

The Mother Of Faces flicks her finger and seras begins to float. In an instant they move at high speeds which even her vision can't follow. Two seconds later, they stop and seras is at an open plain.

"This should be a perfect place to practice." the spirit drops seras who lands on her feet.

"Yes It is, thank you." Seras begins to walk away when she is stopped.

"Before you go, I wish to offer a piece of advice."

"Ok?"

"Your presence itself is changing the future. I know you haven't done anything drastic, but you're too powerful. You should be careful." The spirit begins to float away.

"Sometimes doing nothing to not change something will make it change even more than doing something. I offer this in hopes that you find happiness." She continues as she disappears into the fog.

Seras ruminates over the words for a few minutes before deciding to stop and get as much as she can from the spirit world. She closes her eyes and begins to breathe in an out a few times.

'Let's begin....'

While seras was training her bending in the spirit world, in the real world, a certain princess was on the move earlier than planned. She is riding on a ship that is much larger than Zuko's and has some personal touches that would make anyone jealous.

On the deck of this magnificent ship, is a beautiful teenage girl surrounded by 8 fierce looking soldiers. Observing them is two elderly women who are sitting above next to a luxurious canopy filled with pillows.

The eight men begin attacking with fire-bending at the girl, but she evades and disperses all the attacks with elegance. She then smirks arrogantly before attacking them with what looks like a light blue fire. The soldiers are defeated in a matter of seconds as the girl stops attacking and sighs in contentment.

"You have become more powerful, Princess Azula." One of the older women states.

"As one might expect from the only person to master blue fire in the past hundred years." The other one continues.

Azula merely stares at the two making them nervous. Her glare surpasses the Fire Lord. Just when they're about to speak again, Azula opens her mouth.

"Yes, I have grown stronger. However...I'm not the strongest." Her statement makes the other two confused when she continues.

"And do you know who, of my family other than my father, is stronger than me?"

The two women look at each other and come to the same conclusion, but they don't speak out loud.

"My esteemed uncle, The Dragon Of The West, And former crown prince of the fire nation. He is still stronger than me and this same man, has warned us Of another fire bender who he says is the strongest he has ever seen." her voice becomes low in anger.

"He has fought dragons and still says this bender is stronger. It doesn't matter how much my cousins death affected him, he is still one of the strongest fire benders in history." Flames appear around her showing her agitation.

"And my father wishes for me to apprehend the avatar from this woman? I can't tell if he has tremendous confidence in me or he wishes to use me as a pawn!" She breathes out a large blue flame which flies into the sky.

""Princess.....""the two speak out at the same time when she says this.

Azula takes a few breaths and calms down before looking forward at the ocean. She smirks when she sees a giant black line in the distance that seems to be moving.

"I need cannon fodder to see how strong this fire bender is." Her voice is so cold despite releasing super hot flames before.