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Jae had absolutely no idea what was happening.
He had even less of an understanding of how he’d ended up in the middle of all this, and he was about two seconds away from completely losing it.
Captain Karthik had just asked Pavi to demonstrate her various bending abilities, who just stared at him warily fora few seconds. She then turned her head and glanced toward her long-lost twin sister, who responded with an encouraging thumbs-up.
Her long-lost twin sister. Who was apparently the second Avatar.
Yeah. Jae still hadn't gotten over that little revelation.
Because, somehow, the all-powerful, potentially world-ending Avatar—the very figure whose existence had shaped centuries of history, inspired countless legends, and struck fear into the hearts of people across the world—was, in reality, an innocent, terrified nine-year-old girl.
And now there were two of them.
Two.
Jae was beginning to think he didn't get paid nearly enough for this. Not that he needed or wanted the money, technically, but that wasn't the point. There was a principle involved, and he was fairly certain that principle had been violated somewhere along the way.
Then Pavi turned toward him.
For a few seconds, she simply looked at him, a sincere, questioning glint in her eyes.
Jae, meanwhile, had temporarily checked out of reality. He blinked, realizing someone was looking at him, and turned his attention back to the present. The moment he recognized who it was, his shoulders relaxed a fraction.
Oh. Just Pavi.
That was... somehow reassuring.
And then the weight of the situation came crashing back down on him.
What was he doing?
He had just found the Avatar. Two Avatars, apparently. One of whom Captain Karthik had been hiding for over three years. Three years! The man should, by all rights, be answering some very uncomfortable questions from the Brigade. At the very least, Jae ought to be considering whether Captain Karthik needed to be turned over to them.
And Pavi?
Pavi shouldn't have trusted any of them. Not Captain Karthik, who had kept an enormous secret from the world while also being part of the very force hunting said secret down. Nor Nisha, her newly rediscovered twin sister, whom she'd known for less than an hour. And certainly not Jae, who was a member of the Brigade alongside Captain Karthik.
Pavi had spent most of her life alone, living in hiding and learning to survive in a world that, if it ever discovered what she was, might never leave her in peace. She had every reason to be suspicious. Every reason to keep her distance, to question their intentions, and to protect herself before allowing anyone else close.
Yet here she was, offering her trust to people she'd known for mere hours.
It was, frankly, baffling.
Although... Jae supposed he could understand why she trusted Nisha. A little, anyway. The girl was Pavi's long-lost twin sister, after all. That sort of connection had to matter, even if the two of them had only just found one another.
And, to be fair, Pavi and Jae had saved each other just a few hours ago.
That counted for something, too.
Perhaps that was what made this so difficult. Pavi wasn't being foolish, necessarily. She was simply choosing to believe in both of them, even when she had every reason not to. And, somehow, despite the Brigade's involvement and the staggering implications of everything they'd uncovered, she'd decided that Jae was someone she could trust.
He wasn't entirely sure what to do with that.
Jae drew a quiet breath, forcing himself to gather his scattered thoughts. For once, he pushed aside the questions, the suspicions, and the increasingly concerning realization that his understanding of the world had just been turned upside down.
Because Pavi was looking at him as though his answer genuinely mattered.
That mattered to him, too.
So, screw it with the mistrust. Forget the Brigade's protocols. And to hell with the idea that the Avatar had to be the most terrifying figure in the world.
Pavi was a person. A frightened, bewildered girl who was trying to make sense of a world that had never given her much reason to feel safe.
And Jae could at least give her this much.
Thus for those few seconds, he pulled himself together, met her gaze, and gave her a small, reassuring look.
“It's okay,” he promised sincerely, referring to Captain Karthik. Despite just learning about the man’s long-running rule-breaking, Jae found himself still trusting his Captain, who had kept Pavi’s sister protected for this long.
Jae made sure Pavi understood that he meant it. No hesitation. No carefully worded qualifications. Just a simple, earnest assurance that she could believe in him.
Pavi studied him for a moment before her expression softened. Then she nodded, beaming at him with such uncomplicated gratitude making Jae feel almost guilty for how thoroughly he was still freaking out on the inside.
Almost.
With one last look at him, Pavi turned away and walked a few steps toward the training dummy.
Jae watched as she stopped in front of it, drew in a deep breath, and slowly exhaled. She raised her hands, her posture shifting as she prepared to bend the earth.