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Jae had known it was only a matter of time before the Avatar was revealed to Ellora, changing their lives forever. He’d known, he just… wished it could have been under better circumstances, without an angry mob forming, without Nisha facing down the people who were once her friends and neighbors, without an innocent little girl being attacked and villainized for something she couldn’t control.
Without Jae foolishly exposing himself as a traitor in front of everyone by protecting her from harm, by clumsily hurling himself between her and the crowd and blocking every stone and attack thrown at her. He met everyone’s gazes, the shock and betrayal in the faces of those he’d helped protect for years, and try as he might he couldn’t quite keep the devastation from his eyes, the pleading, the desperate hope that they’d understand. The helplessness, because he knew they wouldn’t.
Daemin asked shakily what Jae was doing, assuming he must have a reason for this madness, this reckless endangering of their secret, having so much faith in him even now. Blue eyes stared expectantly at him, so earnestly confused and hopeful, waiting for an explanation Jae couldn’t give him. Beside him, Datu’s brow drew in confusion and dawning dread, visibly searching for some other explanation beyond Jae is a lying traitor. Datu, Jae’s beloved, looking at Jae like he didn’t recognize him, like he was looking at a stranger wearing Jae’s skin, denial and anguish and heartbreak flickering across his face, and all Jae wanted was to rush over and comfort him but he couldn’t.
And then Nisha spoke, pitched low so only Jae could hear.
“Jae.” she said calmly, far too calmly for the situation, a grim resignation in her eyes, “I’m going to do something very bad, but you need to understand it’s for your protection.”
“What are you-“ he started, and then she shifted into a strange waterbending stance, like none Jae had ever seen before, tight and tense, muscles straining and teeth gritting and Jae…
Jae moved.
He cried out as his body was wrenched by an unseen force, something invisible and wrong reaching into his blood and tendons and bones and pulling on his limbs like puppet strings, forcing him into an airbending stance with his palm aimed directly at Datu’s face, and try as he might, he couldn’t move an inch, couldn’t shift his aim away from the man he loved. Datu’s eyes, wide with shock, soon darkened with a fury like Jae had never seen as he and everyone seemed to realize what was happening. Jae’s body twitched and shuddered in place, jerking and unnatural, as he fought against Nisha’s compulsion, against his own body, eyes wide with terror and betrayal. He tried to look at Nisha, barely able to move his head enough to do so, but her expression was stone, looking out over the crowd as someone screamed.
“The Avatar is using bloodbending!” the scream rang with horror, echoed in the cries of the crowd, “She’s using bloodbending on Jae! Someone stop her!” Jae watched incredulously as the crowd swallowed the lie with an ease that made him queasy, almost everyone seeming to immediately believe that Jae was incapable of deception or treachery, that he was just an unlucky victim to an evil Avatar, that the little girl they’d all known for years was perfectly capable of something so vile as what they accused her of.
“Let him go!” Daemin, sweet well-intentioned Daemin, flung out a whiplike tendril of water at Nisha, his face drawn with a terrible mix of anger and fear. Nisha wasted no time in bending, her tense movements almost exaggerated as she dragged Jae in between her and the water, as if she was putting on a show. Letting them see her controlling Jae. Letting Daemin and Lan and Uki and Datu see.
Letting them think Jae wasn’t betraying them of his own free will. Letting herself become an irredeemable monster in their eyes. For him.
Tears filled his eyes at that realization, the understanding that Nisha was trying to help him, and he knew his tears, his obvious guilt and devastation, would only strengthen the story Nisha was trying to sell. As Jae unwillingly darted between Nisha and the water whip, Daemin gasped and yanked it back like Nisha probably (hopefully) knew he would, nearly taking himself out in his rush to avoid hurting Jae. Datu in turn made a sound Jae had never heard before, dark and dangerous, something vicious and hoarse wrenching from his throat.
“Capture the Avatar alive if you can, kill her if you can’t.” Datu commanded the scattered brigade, his voice shaking with barely restrained rage, and Jae’s heart dropped at his words, “Restrain Jae, as gently as you can. Try to avoid hurting him, and do not kill him for anything in the world or so help me Spirits you will answer to me.”
“Datu.” Jae breathed, but any reply was lost under the battle cry of the crowd.
It was mayhem after that. The crowd was angry and determined, but uncoordinated, no one truly in command as it quickly turned into a free-for-all. Jae darted and wove around the battle like a dancer, a combination of his own will and Nisha’s control, his movements becoming less jerky as she got used to puppeting him, more natural and smooth. The feeling of his body moving without his input was still nauseating, still horrible, but his bending was still his own, and Nisha was getting very good at yanking him away from threats he hadn’t noticed, keeping him firmly away from Daemin and Datu and anyone else who might be able to hold him, and they found themselves in a strange little dance of blood and air, moving in a tandem they’d never known before.
Until he stepped just a little too far from the edge of the fight, attention diverted just long enough for Datu’s strong arms to wrap around him like a vice, familiar and warm if not for the near-painful strength, the pinning of his hands against his chest, stopping him from any coordinated bending. He had always been so gentle with Jae until now, touching him like he was precious and cherished, and Jae wished so badly he could just burrow into those arms and hide away from the world like he had so many times before, safe and protected in Datu’s loving embrace.
But it seemed the time for such luxuries had come and gone.
“How long has she had you?” Datu whispered fiercely, burying his face in Jae’s shoulder, his shirt growing wet as he realized Datu was crying, “Is this why you’ve been acting so weird lately, so tired and cagey? She’s been threatening you, forcing you? Why didn’t you tell me, Jae, Jae, I would have protected you, I would have done anything to save you from her. Did she… force you not to tell me? Is that it? Did she threaten you? Threaten me?” Jae wanted to protest, to cry and shout and insist that Nisha was a good person, that this whole situation was just fucked up and wrong, just a giant horrific misunderstanding. But their story, their lie, required his silence, and if he wanted to keep Datu’s love, even for just a little bit longer, he had to go along with this charade, and despite wishing with all his heart that he was a good brave man who could stand tall and shout the truth to the heavens, condemn himself and lose everything in order to save Nisha… he wasn’t. He simply wasn’t. Jae was a coward through and through, too afraid of the judgement and anger of his friends, too lovesick and weak to tell Datu the truth, to make the man he loved hate him, to watch the protective fury in those green eyes melt into despair and disgust and hatred.
“Datu, I…” His throat closed, choking the words he might have said into a miserable little sob. No words could express Jae’s regret, his grief, his love for the man holding him. So instead of speaking, of risking Nisha’s gamble with his bleeding heart, Jae kicked into the air and blasted Datu back with a gust of wind, using far less force than they both knew him capable of. Datu tried to keep hold of him as he flew backwards, but only succeeded in grasping at his ponytail, a decent chunk of raven hair tangling in Datu’s fingers and subsequently being yanked out as they separated. Datu flew into a merchant stall, landing roughly but not fatally, and it was then that Nisha seemed to decide that enough was enough, that they needed to get out of here before someone got seriously hurt.
“Jae.” she called loud enough for others to hear, a knuckle-cracking roll of her hand dragging Jae stumbling over to her side, “I’m leaving, and you’re coming with me. I’m sorry but I need a hostage in case they find me later.”
“No!” Datu snarled, bruised and scraped but still trying to pull himself from the ruined stand on shaky legs, eyes bright with wild desperation, “Leave him alone, leave him! He’s innocent, damn you, he’s only ever tried to help you! Don’t you dare touch him, don’t you dare, don’t you dare-“ But Nisha had already thrown her arms around Jae’s waist, the ground beneath them opening up as she used Pavi’s badger-mole trick to drag the two of them underground, spiriting them far away from Ellora and the ruins of their lives, to rendezvous with Pavi and figure out where to go from here.
The last thing Jae saw before the ground closed above him was Datu’s face twisting in despair and denial, screaming Jae’s name as he reached for him with fingers still wrapped in Jae’s hair, too far away to do anything to stop the Avatar from taking him away.