Chapter Text
If anything, Luz was an amazing runner. Whether it was running for track, running to train, or running for her life, she’d be great at it. She really wished that the third scenario wasn’t a reality, but fate is a cruel force.
Luz knew what the Red Lotus was. At the end of the Hundred Year War, the Order of the White Lotus made the decision to make themselves public knowledge, existing to help train the Avatar. A group of people opposed this and broke off from the White Lotus and formed their own organization, existing as a global militant anarchist federation. They call themselves the Red Lotus.
After Avatar Korra defeated their leader, Zaheer, the group disappeared into the shadows of the four nations. While Fire Lord Izumi and the Chiefs of the Southern and Northern Water Tribes worked hard to find them, there was no telling how many members existed.
Now, approximately two reincarnations of the Avatar later, Luz was running for her life as the Red Lotus sicks their large number of forces on Omashu, where she had just finished her earthbending training. With the support of the White Lotus and Earth President Wu’s forces, Luz was able to escape with her life intact. However, she now found herself being chased by two Red Lotus members and their current leader, Zai Fu. While she was a good runner, Luz knew that she wouldn’t be able to race ahead of them forever.
Thinking quickly, Luz rounded a corner into an alley and quickly erected a high wall made of earth. She knew it wouldn’t hold them off for long, but her pursuers would be caught off guard by the sudden development. On either side of the alley were doors; two to Luz’s left, and one to her right. The first one on the left was locked, and though Luz had taught herself how to pick locks with metalbending, she didn’t really have the time for it right now.
Luz went to open the door on the right. As she reached for the doorknob, it swung open. A Red Lotus member greeted her. “Nowhere left to run, Avatar!” He immediately blasted a wave of fire at her. Luz jumped into the air to avoid it. As she landed, another stone wall rose. A quick jab with her fist sent the wall flying towards the firebender, knocking him back through the doorway. With no other options, Luz quickly stepped to the final door.
As her hand rested on the doorknob, Luz suddenly felt a wave of energy surge through her hand and into the rest of her body. A brilliant light began to shine through the cracks of the door. Luz was hesitant to open the door. That is, until she heard the earth wall she lifted earlier begin to crumble. With no other options, Luz opened the door. It swung open with enough force to knock her back. As she looked on, there was a blinding radiance gazing back at her. It reminded her of the Spirit Portal in Republic City.
Rocks suddenly went flying behind her. Looking to her left, the wall had been destroyed, and Zai Fu was standing there, an angry look on his face.
“You’re through, Avatar Luz. Just give up now.”
If Zai Fu caught her, everything would end in disaster. As she was now, in this confined space, she wasn’t sure if she was able to beat him. Even with the Avatar State, Luz wasn’t sure she’d be able to keep it under control for long. That left her only one option.
Ducking under a boulder heading her way, Luz took a deep breath and jumped through the portal.
“It seems our hard work is about to pay off.”
Deep beneath the Emperor’s Castle, various people were running across the room, either putting in data, plugging something in, or even trying to escape the room before the portal is turned on. Lilith Clawthorne was overseeing the entire process as Emperor Belos stood beside her, looking forward to the experiment.
Amity stood next to her mentor, slightly intimidated by the abnormally tall figure on Lilith’s other side. When she had first begun her training to become a fully-fledged Emperor’s Coven member, she wasn’t expecting it to be so technologically advanced compared to the rest of the Isles. If Belos’s staff and the strange mechanics of the castle itself weren’t enough to blow her away, the portal under the castle was.
It turns out that for the past fifteen years, Emperor Belos and his followers have been focusing on building a portal that is supposed to cross the divide into the Human Realm. Lilith called this divide ‘the Gap’. Though it isn’t confirmed, the witch believed that the Human Realm and Demon Realm were once interconnected,
Amity wasn’t privy to what Belos planned to do with this portal. Until the portal was known to be stable, no one of utmost importance was allowed through. That’s why, for this experiment, they brought in a witch that was originally going to be petrified. Once Lilith and several other scientists had made a sudden breakthrough with the portal, however, Belos suddenly ordered that no witches would be turned to stone. This witch was tasked with crossing over to the Human Realm, grabbing some form of evidence that they were over there, then coming back within one minute.
The portal was near ready to activate, which meant that the test subject was thrust in front of it and everyone else was either taking their positions or leaving the room entirely. Belos, Lilith and Amity stood behind a thick screen of enhanced glass, designed to protect against the strongest of explosions. A voice came over the room.
“All preparations complete. Activating the portal in 10, 9, 8…” Amity found herself holding her breath as the man counted down. If this was a success, then her mentor would be more than thrilled. Not just as the leader of the Emperor’s Coven, but also as a scientist. Despite that, Amity couldn’t help the spiders crawling around in her stomach. She wasn’t sure if it was out of excitement, anxiousness, or another feeling. She had a small sense that this experiment wasn’t going to go how it was supposed to.
“Three…”
Amity saw Lilith’s grip on her staff tighten. She grabbed her teacher’s hand with her own, offering a reassuring squeeze. Lilith glanced at her and smiled before returning her attention to the portal.
“Two…”
Belos had been tapping his foot somewhat impatiently for a while now. He stopped as the countdown neared its end.
“One.”
As a man pulled a switch, Amity was suddenly blinded by a flash of light. Rubbing her eyes, her vision returned. Where there was once a pocket of nothing but air in the middle of the portal now sat a swirling mass of pure energy. Several of the scientists and other people who worked on the project cheered, some of them hugging each other. Lilith let out a sigh of relief. As the excitement died down, they moved on to the next phase of the experiment.
“Subject M will now step through the portal. Once a minute has passed, subject M will return with a piece of evidence from the Human Realm.” Several beeps were heard. “Subject M, please step through the portal.”
The witch took a deep breath. Anything to avoid petrification, is what went through his mind. That thought resonated throughout his entire body as it practically moved on autopilot, slowly inching towards the portal. Belos spoke up for the first time as the subject walked.
“If this is a success, Lilith, then I see a bright future ahead of you. You’ve done well to get this far.” The emperor’s voice raised goosebumps on Amity’s skin. She was also happy for Lilith. After all she’d been through, the struggle to get to where she was, she deserved this. Amity wanted nothing more than for her mentor to have a happy ending.
Which is why her body was then filled with nothing but horror when a person--a human --came from the other side of the portal.
The first thing Luz saw when she jumped through the portal was a figure. She didn’t have time to stop herself, so the two of them collided rather violently. The pain in Luz’s forehead was sharp, but not as bad as other injuries she’d suffered before. As she sat on the ground and rubbed her head, she opened her eyes and took note of her surroundings.
This...isn't the Spirit World.
Luz found herself in what she could only assume to be a testing chamber for something. Wiring ran around the room. Buttons and levers peppered the area. The next thing Luz noticed was the people. The person she’d bumped into was tall, and his ears were very pointy. Other people were among them, but were dressed in white robes and had plague doctor-esque masks covering their faces. Three other figures stood in an observational balcony, one of which wore a golden mask resembling a wendigo mask. In the moment of stunned silence, Luz found herself unable to say anything but one phrase.
“Uh...wrong room?”
Everyone else reacted immediately after. The man she’d run into quickly backed away, still on the ground. The people in white robes took battle stances or ran. The figure in the middle of the balcony, a blue haired woman with a white staff, shouted orders at them.
“Shut down the portal! Capture that human!” Someone pulled a lever as Luz turned around. A light resembling the one she’d just passed through slowly faded from existence, leaving nothing in the strange machine’s space. She looked back at the people surrounding her, some of them summoning staves.
“Wait! I’m sure this is a big misunderstanding.” While Luz knew she could handle herself in a fight, her mother had always taught her to try and talk to your enemies first. “If we could just talk this through, then we can reach a better solution.” Her adversaries weren’t interested. A rather large man, both in height and muscle size, charged at her. His ears were pointy, just like the other person’s. I’m definitely not where I thought I’d end up.
Seeing no other options, Luz also settled into her own stance. As the brute approached, she took a deep breath and stomped her foot on the ground. A pillar of earth shot up from beneath the man, sending him flying into the ceiling. She kicked the upper half of the pillar, causing it to glide through the air and into one of the masked ones. She dodged a beam of light sent her way from the other direction, blasting a fireball at the assailant in retaliation. Thorny vines suddenly sprouted from underneath Luz, attempting to grab her ankles. She quickly jumped with a blast of air. Focusing her energy, a wave of fire and air burst from the impact as she landed.
These people definitely don’t like me. I gotta get out of here. She noticed a metal door. With no other options, Luz began her trek through her enemies.
Amity and Lilith stood in awe at the chaos unfolding in the testing chamber. One moment, everyone is cheering and excited at the fact that the portal had even opened . Now, not only was the condemned witch cowering somewhere in the corner, a human of all things had crossed through the portal and was now slinging the various elements at the Emperor’s guards. The silence in the balcony was finally broken by Belos.
“I expect you to take care of this, Lilith .” The way he said her mentor’s name made Amity worry. Before she could say anything, though, Lilith let go of her hand and nodded.
“Of course, Emperor Belos. We’ll have the human contained in no time. Come with me, Amity.” Lilith began rushing towards the door leading to the chamber. Amity followed quickly behind her, ready to summon her Abomination at any time. The two of them were ready to join the battle when the door suddenly scrunched into itself once, then twice, then a third time, when it finally came off its hinges. The human tossed it aside, preparing to run until she noticed Lilith and Amity standing there. Before she could move, Lilith quickly tapped her staff on the ground, the eyes of her palisman flashing a bright blue. The human was suddenly cast into a blue ball. She attempted to burst it with her flames, but the spell was impervious to most outward attacks.
“Stand down, human. You won’t be able to break out of that.” Lilith’s voice was serious and intimidating. After a few more attempts, the human relented. She looked Lilith in the eyes.
“Please, listen to me! I don’t know how I got here, I just need to get back to Omashu. If we could just talk this out, we can reach a peaceful conclusion to this whole misunderstanding.” The human sounded genuine, and ended her sentence with a kind smile. Amity realized that this was a rather precarious situation. Whoever this human was, with the way she had jumped through the portal, she probably hadn’t meant to end up here. This ordeal was no one’s fault.
Lilith, however, wasn’t swayed by the human’s words. “We will talk, once you are properly imprisoned for trespassing and resisting arrest.” Lilith began making her way back where they came from. Though Amity wanted to speak up, she found the words catching in her throat as she looked at the human, who looked at her. The human sighed, seemingly resigning to her fate, and sat down in the ball cross-legged. She put her fists together and closed her eyes.
Focus. Let your chi flow through your body. Once you can feel it in every vein and every organ, enter the Avatar State. Luz remembered the words her waterbending teacher, Kontra, told her. It was a phrase originally uttered by the Avatar before her, Avatar Stei. Stei asked Kontra to teach it to the Avatar after him, as it helped him stay in the Avatar State for longer periods of time without losing control of it. Luz took a deep breath, then slowly let it out.
As the two of them were going through the observation deck, Amity noticed that Belos was gone. The way he could appear and disappear within this castle was unnerving, to say the least. Currently, several healers were rushing into the testing chamber, helping those who were caught up in the human’s attack. Amity briefly wondered how a human, who was supposed to have no magical prowess, was able to do something like that. Magic was only something witches could do, yet the control this human showed over their abilities was something only the strongest and most experienced witches could achieve.
Amity was pulled from her thoughts as a rush of energy flowed over her. Lilith must have felt it, too, as they both reacted in a similar way. They turned to the ball Lilith had formed. The human was standing up once more, arms outstretched. Her eyes were glowing. Though hard to see, Amity could tell that the air within the ball was flowing.
She couldn’t be...
The ball began to expand. Lilith’s grip on her staff tightened, and Amity supposed she was truly focusing her magic. After drawing a spell circle, Amity’s Abomination rose from the ground and lurched towards the ball. It was too late.
The magical ball suddenly burst with an explosion of air. Amity and Lilith were launched, and Amity felt a sharp pain rush through her as her body slammed into the wall. The human’s eyes returned to their normal state, and she made a break for the exit. As the human disappeared through the doorway, Amity scrambled to her feet and quickly made chase. The two of them sprinted through the castle, and despite other guards attempting to apprehend the human, they were sent flying by a fire bolt or a burst of air. The human even used the water from a flowing waterfall in the castle to encase several guards in ice. Their attempts weren’t entirely in vain. One guard had managed to send a bolt of light into the human’s side. Despite the injury impeding her abilities, she kept moving forward.
As they ran, the main gate of the castle came into view. The human broke off into a sprint. Oh, no you don’t! Amity drew another spell circle in the air. The hand of her Abomination crept from the ground, catching the human by the ankle. She tripped, hitting the ground hard. The rest of her Abomination lifted itself into existence, trapping the human within its arms. She flailed her legs around, but it was futile.
“You won’t be able to escape twice, human.” If it was Amity of all people who was able to capture this human, then she’d surely be showered in praise by Lilith. Belos may also even give her a reward! She smiled to no one but herself, knowing what will happen now that she’s caught the human.
The human stopped her flailing for a second, instead opting to look Amity in the eye. “I have a name , actually. It’s Luz. Avatar Luz, in fact.”
Amity rolled her eyes. “It doesn’t matter what your name is. Even if the whole trespassing thing wasn’t really your fault, you still assaulted numerous guards and resisted arrest. You will answer for your crimes.”
Luz’s expression softened. “Please, I don’t know where I am. One second, I’m running for my life from the Red Lotus, who’ve been trying to kill me for the past two weeks. I see some glowing light, and next thing I know, I’m here. I’m so confused, and all I need is help. Please .”
Amity took a deep breath. She didn’t know what this ‘Red Lotus’ was, but she could tell that this Luz girl was being genuine. It’s only natural--if Amity were suddenly thrust into the Human Realm, and everyone tried to capture her , then she’d be confused and scared, as well. She wanted to speak, but there was a sudden sound of footsteps coming from behind them. Amity looked, and sure enough, there were several guards, all heading this way, led by Lilith. Luz sighed.
“Welp, guess that’s that.”
Amity turned around just in time to see Luz breathe a stream of fire. It was enough to get Amity to back off, and to get the Abomination to drop her. Taking one last look back, Luz raised a giant wall between her and the guards coming after her. She took one last look at Amity, who’d managed to get out of the way before the wall appeared.
Seeing no more reason to stay here, Luz turned around and ran out of the castle. Amity watched as she grew smaller and smaller, racing into the horizon. Lilith managed to make a hole through the wall. She and the other guards poured through it, but they also realized that initiating a chase was futile at this point. Lilith helped Amity get back on her feet. “Are you okay,” her mentor asked.
“Yeah, I’m fine.” Amity patted herself down, checking for injuries, just in case. When she found none, Lilith relaxed.
“Begin working on a wanted poster for that human. The reward will be ten million snails.” One of the guards saluted and ran off. Lilith sighed. “I’ll have to report this to the emperor.”
Amity could see her teacher’s hesitance. Belos was not someone you’d want to come to with bad news. Not on your own, anyway. “I’ll come with you!” Amity spoke more eagerly than she meant to. Despite that, Lilith smiled. The two of them headed towards Belos’s throne room, dreading their destination.
Eda was flying home after a long day of delivering potions and swindling people with weird human treasures. She was proud of herself; today’s haul was rather large, earning her enough money to last a while. She hummed to herself happily as she flew.
She was over the forest that hid the Owl House from outsiders when she noticed someone walking through the woods. Why anyone would be there at this hour was beyond her. The demons and monsters around could tear anyone to shreds--anyone besides Eda, of course. Letting her curiosity get the better of her, Eda guided Owlbert further down, attempting to get a better look at the person.
Now what’s a human doing around here?
Eda glided down to the point where she was level with the human. “What brings someone like you to this forest?” The human jumped backwards as Eda appeared. She then winced and gripped her side. Eda looked and saw blood trickling between her hands. Though she wasn’t really willing to help some random bleeding person in the middle of the woods, the human’s look of pain said something to Eda.
“Alright, kid, get on. I’ll take care of you.” She patted the space on her staff behind her. The human nodded gratefully, then hopped on, clearly too tired to register the absurdity of this situation. The two of them then took to the air once more. “So, kid, what’s your name?”
“Luz.” The human’s voice was rather weak. She’d clearly had that injury for a while, now. Eda wondered how she’d been able to stay awake.
“Well, Luz, can I ask why you were wandering through some random forest with a hole in the side of your body?”
Luz thought back on the events of today. After Omashu was attacked by the Red Lotus, she was then running for her life before she was pulled into an unknown world, unlike anything she’d ever seen. After another attempt at being arrested, Luz somehow managed to escape with her life, but not without any wounds.
“It’s a long story.”