"Air. Water. Earth. Fire. For over ten thousand years the world and its nations have trusted in the Avatar, eternally reincarnated, who could master all four elements and wield incomparable power. Yet humanity has still suffered through cycles of conflict, turmoil, and oppression. Some Avatars tried diplomacy, some tried to lead by example, and some fought all their lives. The current incarnation, Avatar Meili Yang, has forged her own path, one bolstered by incredible new technology, and since the full assumption of her office has presided over two decades without war. But this peace exacts its own price which..."

The teacher glanced up from her cheap weather podium emblazoned with the 'shield and flame' emblem of the Fire Nation Department of Education to see that very few of her students were bothering to look at the wall-mounted screen which was now transitioning from a painting of the mythical discovery of bending to a large stylized image of a lotus in blue and white.

She sighed. "Come on people, all this review will be on the Global University examination which I know for a fact many of you are taking. So if we could all just pay attention for a second? I am not doing this for myself."

There was the sound of much straitening in plastic and metal chairs.

"Thank you. So...Ah, yes. It was not until two-hundred-and-twelve A.S. that Avatar Korra..."

Most of the class had been roused but in the back of the room there still was one student who remained slumped back in his chair, looking out the window at the row of palm trees waving slightly in the wind and bright summer light. Behind the green fronds the traditional peaked eaves of red tiled roofs mixed with modern white buildings glistening with glass that reflected the sparkling of the bay. From where he sat he could see in the distance one bright sliver where the streets of the town lined up just right to reveal a single thin line of sea and another finger of the island. Shrunken to tiny proportions by the distance, a tall white distribution pylon sat on that far hill invisibly pumping public electricity into the air.

Under the glare from the gentle sun that filtered through the window this student's desk was displaying his open note-taking document, but he had not typed anything for a while. By habit he absently tapped one finger against the surface to keep it from sending an inactive notice to the teacher at the front of the room. His black hair was, as always, sticking up just out just a little more than he wanted to, and right now he sighed with all the quiet ennui only a seventeen-year-old at school can manage. His golden eyes darted back and forth in the middle distance, watching an invisible daydream with an anxious impatience. It's just a shame none of that anticipation was saved for minding his teacher.

"...in you own time, Sano."

Sano jumped in his seat, awareness crashing down that the teacher had been addressing him. He made the gesture of hitting enter on his supposed lecture notes while smiling up at the podium and flicking glances at the chapter pages pushed to his screen to see if he could surreptitiously determine what the teacher had been discussing.

He cleared his throat. "Sorry, I lost track of which paragraph you were..."

His teacher sighed. "Begins with 'White Lotus'."

"Yes, ah. The White Lotus Corpse..." he began.

"That is 'Corps' and I was asking a question rather than wanting you to read out loud. How about we go over to Sang for now. Sang?"

Sano hung his head down to his desk in embarrassment and frustration. He had never gotten fantastic grades but this close to graduation from required schooling he could not put his heart into it even to his usual uncertain degree. After all, he had very different things to worry about today. He was finally going to get a chance to be seen for his own real talent. To seize the last open path to that imagined land of opportunity-filled adulthood. He just had to wait out the clock on the classroom wall that for once was mercifully complying.

"Brrrring!"

Students were already heading out the door by the time the teacher got around to giving her one last announcement.

"And remember people, study sessions for the GU examination will be all this weekend. You are encouraged to go to at least one!" At this point the noise from the exiting students and the rush in the hallway made her announcements even more futile than usual so she contented herself with filling up her tea thermos with hot water from the standing tank and sat down heavily her desk to regain her breath for the battle of next period.

The forceful elbow nudge to Sano's ribs came out of nowhere in the sardinechovey-like crush of the packed hallway. That elbow's owner took the interaction as prelude for an open line of communication.

"Are you even bothering with the GU Exam, Sano?" the looming figure said. "I figure I've got a better chance of popping up with airbending than you do acing that, and they only give out like three firebending scholarships for the island so you're out of luck either way!"

"Your concern is as touching as always, Shota." Sano said with a grimace. The guy was was not bad, just too big and with an annoying habit of acting like people were closer friends than they were. Shota also possessed an assumedly religious forbearance of deodorant which made Sano once again regret every paltry inch he lacked in height that would take him away from armpit level. But he did not have time for this, the doorway was coming up. It was time to strike. Sano quickly shifted his stance, weight on the heel, and...pop! He slid out of the pressing flow of student crowd into the stairwell heading down to the school entrance. His last two classes would just have to get by without him.

Shota was at the top of the stairs momentarily, leaning against the wall. "Skipping school on the last week? You're a bad, bad man."

Sano let off a wicket grin as he walked backwards and waved up. "Oh, you know it!"

...

It was the end of the year and no one really cared about attendance in a strictly predictive sense, but Sano still breathed a sigh of relief once he slid out the school front gate undetected. On the sidewalk outside he listened to the soft electric whir of cars passing on the road as he whipped his computer out of his pocket to check for messages he might have missed. Nothing. And so he was in the process of queuing up his own message when something hit him in the back of the head with a loud "Yo!"

"About time!" Sano said spinning to throw a playful hit of his own at the stylishly dressed young man who had come up behind him. "Where were you hiding?"

While Sano tried at least to stay presentable looking most days, though despite his efforts every outfit he ordered somehow managed to look slightly too big on hi, Kadat did it effortlessly. The northern tribes boy set off his dark skin with some combination of white and dark shirts that with his long braided brown hair screamed 'confidant bad-boy'. Of course, his necklace alone probably cost more than everything Sano wore and that shirt was custom tailored but that wasn't the point. The unimitatable nature just made it even more annoying when Kadat put on a show with an overly dramatic flip of his three hair braids.

"I guess I was just getting misty eyed thinking about my little buddy's forthcoming entry into adulthood. It's so emotional!" Kadat, wiped away a fake tear.

Sano shoved him back. "You jerk, you graduated from this place ONE year ago!"

Kadat just grinned and flashed a laminated blue card held up between two fingers. "And I've been licensed for three. So you better deliver on your test today. I am tired of being the only legal bender here."

"Yeah, I'll bend up your..." Sano mumbled.

"What was that?"

"I said come on, lets grab the trackless."

Together they ran up to the doors of the large vehicle stopped at the curb under wide spread branches of fluttering leaves. Stepping up off the street onto the bus, Sano flashed his face up to the camera and darted in for a seat even before he heard the recognition beep. Kadat tried to be slow and cool in his sauntering progress down the aisle, as usual, and so Sano got to see him stumble like a tourist when the electric moters spun up into motion. As soon as they were together in their seats Sano began explaining his plan for the day.

"All right, I've got a practice room reserved right up until the bending licensing test, and my aunt should be there by...What are you looking at?"

Kadat was leaning deep into Sano's personal space, looking out the window at something high above the horizon of rooftops.

"I've been seeing helicopters all day. I wonder if something's up?"

Sano caught sight of three of the black shapes moving over the city like metal wasps, and as their bus crossed an intersection he thought he could see one more out over the bay.

He murmured his thoughts. "Well, the Firelord is coming day after tomorrow for the exams ceremony as part of his big 'Year of Space Exploration' thing, publicity for the interplanetary launch stuff, so I guess that... Woah!"

The red and black helicopters scattered through the sky in buzzing arcs as they were now joined by a craft that dropped from nowhere to hang above the town. It looked like a wingless dragonfly the size of a plane, speckled grey and white in a pattern that made it hard to track as it silently moved across the few wisps of clouds in the blue summer sky.

Kadat slammed Sano's face against the glass in his excitement to get closer to the sight. "Wow! That's an L-drive craft! And it has to be Lotus, no one else has one operational or if they did they wouldn't be hanging out over our city. I wonder what the Corps are up to here?"

"Go gaga over Avatar tech on your own time." Sano muttered. He needed to focus on his licensing demonstration if he had any hope of winning the university firebending scholarship. Kadat didn't understand, his family could have easily paid his way if the guy had ever shown any inclination to go.

Kadat was still staring past him at the floating L-drive craft in the distance so Sano was mostly talking to the seat-back before him. "I just need to get these few hours of extra bending practice in to calm my nerves, and I know this test will go really well."

...

"This test is not going well." Kadat said to himself.

He sat in the bleachers above the practice field, as to his right the aspirants filed out of the building where they had just been subjected to the written portion of the bending license test. Even at this distance he could see Sano looked shaken by whatever had transpired in the previous room. Kadat supposed that they would just have to rely on Sano bending well under public pressure. There would be no shortage of that. The combination of the government's push for its 'Year of Science' and the Firelord's impending attendance at the island's graduation ceremony meant the usually slow-paced seaside town was now sloshing with excitement.

The stands were packed, and not just by locals and employees from the Aerospace Labs up the hills. Kadat could see see other figures on the central dais next to the traditional school officials and the government workers from the capital in black and red. They were figures dressed in grey skintight plated uniforms emblazoned with a prominent white flower. The Lotus Corps had come to present the Global University bending scholarships, though they had never done so in person before.

From behind him Kadat heard an elderly woman muttering to her companion. "And now the Avatar's Lotus goons have the nerve to come here? On this day? Bunch of vulture-kites the lot of them, taking our best and brightest away from doing the Fire Lord's good work. Ptha!"

Kadat looked back at the dais and saw that Director of the nearby SpaceLabs research facility did not look any happier. Serving as exam proctor seemed to be wearing on his nerves with those white-badged living weapons behind him. The man almost bungled his speech about the whole nation striving forward in support of the upcoming Sozin's Comet assisted launch window for the rocket program. The man was so nervous that he seemed half likely to call on the assembled citizenry to attack the Lotus forces instead of reciting the prepared speech about promoting progress towards the usual vague nationalist goal. The government had been playing nice with the Avatar recently but no one in the crowd had forgotten the Kasai Islands succession, and these other provincial officials on the stage seemed decidedly tempted towards undiplomatic action, if their grimaces were anything to go by. Kadat wondered what was boiling behind the closed doors of the Fire Lord's palace if things were this tense here.

Down on the ground before the bleachers Sano ground his teeth in frustration as he concentrated on the flow of his chi moving in tandem with each breath. The adhesive contacts of the mandatory bending circuit pathways itched under his shirt and the connected patches along his arms and legs felt wrong. Unlike his colleagues, Sano had never gotten used to trusting the circuits to guide his chi during bending, instead favoring the old fashioned and purely physical methods. The antique forms and meditations were more difficult, but he felt like they gave him control. His aunt had trained him and she had never been one to rely on programed circuits.

Under the watching eye of the examiner, Sano slid through the brief sequence of stances and felt the nature of his breath change and separate. Then he locked the hands into place and exhaled. Feel the release of power! The lightbulb on its pedestal ten feet away showed no reaction. Up and down his arms Sano felt the contacts of the circuit apparatus try to guide his energy, but they were always delayed a second behind his actions and so he forced past the resistance. The examiner looked at the lightbulb, sighed, and tapped something on his tablet, but Sano was not giving up this easily. Carefully he pumped a little more power into his stance, feeling small arcs of electricity crackle between his fingers. He had to be putting enough amperage into the air, but why was the bulb not lighting? Ah! A flicker of light! That just about had to...

Looking up from the suddenly melted and shattered bulb Sano saw the other examinees doing infuriatingly well. They were making their little gestures at their targets which heated or cooled on demand, individually or in the group synchronized patterns he had just never gotten the handle of. The couple of earthbenders off to the side were smashing and reforming their rocks to the circuit-programed patterns and even the lone waterbender was in the corner happily splashing away. But for him...in bending-circuit usage he was fighting the programed cartridge, in welding he burnt through the board, and the next test just melted.

But it was all going to be ok. The final portion was the freestyle demonstration, and this is where he was going to shine. The applicant in front of him stepped forward, leaving Sano alone at the head of the line, Feeling a rush of confidence he reached under his shirt to peel off the chi-path contacts to the sound of a suddenly murmuring crowd. The other test takers looked at him with alternating confusion and annoyance. He ignored them and it was soon his turn. As he continued his breathing exercises he stepped out into the wide concrete ring before the stands and dais. He looked into the crowd and saw Kadat giving an insincerely confidant thumbs up. He was scanning for another member of the audience when when he heard the voice of the SpaceLab director from the dais speak out.

The director was bored or worried, showing no appreciation for his proctoring duties. "Applicant 14. Begin!"

Showtime.

Sano slid his leg back as he shifted his weight, his thin-soled shoes scraping agains the gritty concrete. Then his fire burst forth.

Exhale and sweep your leg, inhale on the transfer kick, catch the fire and spread it upwards. Transfer the landing motion into an arm-strike feeding the wall of flame. In the flickering wash of his own orange light Sano felt his fear of the crowd melt away under the waves of heated air that whipped across his cheeks. Then concentrate and punch, a lance of focused fire stabbing through the drifting flames.

As he continued his confidence grew. He was the dragons themselves. None of the other aspirants else had done anything like his demonstration. His flames were hotter, his reach was farther, and his dance was faster than any before him. He fought his shadow battle like a warrior with shield and spear, wreaths of obscuring light laying way for surprising stabs of power. And then he was done and he bowed as the fire winked out, ribs heaving in and out with his panting. His view of the audience wavered in the dissipating heat but he could not see the one figure he wanted most, the sunlined face under a graying bun. Where was his aunt? Could she have...?

"Applicant 14...Fail!"

Sano spun towards the proctor's podium in disbelief. "What?! But that wasn't just a programed routine! I just..."

The director in his red coat was tired, hot, and far too accustomed to teenage outrage. He began to wearily explain, "Indeed. Your refusal of the Chi-Circuit was unnecessarily dangerous, your maneuvers were well outside the suggested guidelines for the demonstration portion, and your style was antiquated, showing a lack of innovation. You will be able try again at the next examination date."

Sano was left gasping in disbelief as the crowd shifted in preparation of the results announcement. He could not hear the speech well from where he was standing but that did not matter now, he had been counting on his freeform to make up for the rest of his test. He had been so sure of it! And now they were reading out the names of those who passed and the bleachers were cheering and breaking up to join the test-takers and the Lotus Corps representatives were walking up to the podium to present the scholarships and this was it. It had always been a wild dream but as he stood there with his fists shaking in agonizing frustration he realized that he had somehow always believed he would be recognized. That his talent would be seen and he would be whisked away to the Royal College or to the Global University, and now he was stuck on this island forever.

He stopped mid pant and snapped his mouth closed. There was one thing left. 'Lack of innovation', they said. Well, he would show them something none of them had seen before. Alone in the back of the crowd of applicants that formed an arc around the central dais Sano fixed his eyes on the exam proctor in his red and black suit and slid into the first stance of his secret technique.

Heart stoked by burning ambition, breath spilling out along every limb. Concentrate, move, purify, concentrate. Coronas began to flicker around his hands as he smashed them together for the final motion. But no, just before they touched he was caught by a hand on his wrist. He spun to see Kadat clutching his arm back, interrupting the motions.

"You don't want to do this." Kadat said

"What?, Just let me..."

"Sano, wake up! You can take the test again! You've gone on so many times about not wanting to reveal your technique and now you want to expose it in front of half the city? Calm down and wait the four months for the next test, man."

With a wave of applause the ceremony was over. Three kids were up on the stage waving their GU scholarship awards proudly and jumping with glee. Sano could not look any longer and instead turned to the crowd of well-wishers. But the only figure looking his way was some tall old man in a brown robe and battered straw hat at the edge of the stands, and they both looked away together.

Leaning over to Kadat, Sano said. "Did you see...?"

Kadat shook his head. "No, she's not here. But I'm sure she just got caught in traffic somewhere." He slapped Sano on the back, trying to lighten the mood. "Come on, let's get out of here and get you thinking of something else other than this test."

At the mention of his failure Sano groaned but he managed a weak grin at his friend. "Yeah, ok. Hah, who wants to go halfway across the world anyway."

...

The world spins and light and dark spin with it. From above, racing towards the death of the day, one would see that chain of steamy islands and smoking peaks passes away below. Now out of the blue-green sea the forested wall of the continent arrises and mountains burst forth from the intertwined leafy bows to leap for the sky in tumbling throes before falling away on the other side to a rolling expanse of sand and dust. And now ahead a vast inland sea sparkles, the far side already falling to evening. But on its nearer shores where the broken wasteland gives way to waves a single mountain peak lances upwards, alone in a circular valley at the shores of a bay. Its stone glitters black and burnt, swirling upwards a mile above the plain like the arid and desperate earth was drained out into the void beyond the blue.

The countryside surrounding that mountain was once parched but on the recessed plains around this impossible savage peak the dirt now gives forth bounty in green fields and on the steep black slopes of the newborn mountain, forests sprout. Amongst these trees other things sprout too; buildings shining in the reflected light. And in the shadow of the peak, the gleaming constellations of a young, rich city racing outwards in constant expansion.

At the mountain's stony summit the air is thin but swirling with the dance of spirits, ethereal in every color against the air. From time to time one breaks off to drift down to the lower slopes where a sprawling campus of ornate buildings group together like an overcrowded holy land. The massive gates of stone and metal read 'Global University', and in one unremarkable building nestled amongst the hulking architectural triumphs, in one small window in a corner of permanent shadow, a woman sits.

Avatar Meili Yang is displayed in formal audience before the symbol of unity, a massive thing curving in Yin and Yang encircled by the ancient emblems of the four nations and punctuated with the lotuses. Lines must be starting to form at the corners her mouth and eyes, but thick ceremonial makeup has rendered her an ageless god, and any touch of grey in her hair was invisible beneath the broad conical hat woven not of straw but of gold with dangling jade ornaments. Below her elegant robes and sandals huge block-print characters read 'Peace, Science, and Balance', or would read if a rip in the corner of the poster had not bitten deeply into 'Balance'. The poster beside the Avatar Yang's propagandist portrait detailed the rockets of the Chang'e program and that one had seen much better preservation. The student who owned both had never paid enough attention to fix her complementary decoration with a bit of tape, and now was paying even less attention than usual to any of the contents of her small dormitory room.

Amala sat silently with closed eyes in the only chair that could be fit between the bed and cluttered desk in her small, cramped dormitory room. She was not tall and her frame had the softness of someone who both rarely made it outside and had been repeatedly defeated in her campaigns of vegetarianism. Her dark hair was gathered back in a simple braid and the red and orange lab-coat she wore was clearly the most cared-for item in her wardrobe. To any observer she was deep in sleep, until you noticed the careful positioning of her hands.

With a sudden gasp Amala rocked forward from her stupor, eyes snapping open. She spun her head back and forth, looking for any intruders somehow hidden in the tiny room amongst her three pieces of furniture. Relaxing, she reflexively picked her glasses off the desk and put them on, activating them in the same motion so once again the corners of her vision flickered with the comforting flow of information. Her other hand opened to reveal two pointed green seeds, clutched so tight that a red outline remained imprinted in her palm. She carefully slipped them into one of the many velcro pockets in her lab-coat.

"You can do this." She whispered to herself, distractedly clearing her desk of dust with a small gust summoned by flick of her hand, "They're all counting on you."

Amala was by her nature a nervous person, having something of a studious squirrel about her movements, so as she locked her door and headed up the mountain through the maze of university buildings her twitching anxiety provoked no more notice than she usually did. In fact the only attention she drew was from a few small leaf spirits which faded into view on a branch by the railing of her walkway. Smiling, she reached into one of her many pockets and drew forth a bit of crumbly cracker, petting one of the little gamboling amalgamations of leaves and shadow as they feasted. As she stepped away she looked back, and for a moment leaned towards her room and comforting normalcy before spinning and racing off.

She made her way uphill towards the main research labs, past the massive hangers that housed the University's research one partially open fifty-foot door she could see two of the hulking metal obelisks glowing red and green with activity, a ring of benders at their bases adding their power to the devices which glowed with the engraved patterns of a human's chi paths writ in giant form. Between the two engines a vast cloud of dust and ore floated in the air, melting and stretching, recombining into an intricate lacework glowing with heat that split again and again. As Amala watched, the outer hanger doors slowly slid closed again and the shifting glow disappeared behind them.

Amala continued to march forward up the path. She was prepared for this mission. Her student researcher ID card allowed her to sneak through the main entrance of the Advanced Research building. Well, actually she did not have to sneak as she was perfectly permitted to enter most areas of this facility and the gate guard did not even look up at her when she passed, holding her breath from nervousness. But getting to her final destination would be more difficult. Many Lotus forces were wandering the halls this close to their headquarters and it was all Amala could do to keep her heart in her chest. There at the end of the hall was the fortified entrance to the high security labs, complete with guards dressed in powered-armor. But around the corner here was a supply closet, and that is what she needed. Just in time, if the stolen schedule she had received was correct.

A finger swept along one of the shelves showed a bit of dust so this could not be a place people were routinely bustling in and out of. That made it perfect. Amala slid down to the floor of the closet with her legs crossed and once again closed her eyes, her hands meeting in front of her, but now formed into fists. And then she opened her other eyes far away.

Her projected spirit glimmered into life as a pale blue ghost deep within the facility. Her new form was not bothered by walls or armored soldiers, but it was still visible, and if the rumors were true the Avatar had spirit hounds roaming these halls. So Amala's ghostly manifestation flickered in and out of existence around the corridors and facilities of the high-security labs. It was unnerving, and if Amala could have felt her body in this state she knew it would be trembling but she could not abandon her search so quickly. She could not give up now, even if one of the resident researchers was left blinking and staring at a wall of his lab where for a split second the head of a transparent glowing girl had appeared.

These labs and corridors were vast, burrowing deep into the fresh rock of the mountain. Amala was at the very limit of her range for casting afar her spirit when she found herself in a huge room, lit only by the glow of displays and the blink of indicator lights on computer banks around the periphery walls. Massive high-power cables snaked across the floor and while there were many terminals and machines scattered with ordered madness the room was dominated by a large round sphere held aloft in the middle of the vast space by a pedestal adorned with the full range of warning labels. The room was occupied by a number of scientists bustling away at their stations but Amala was hidden half in the back wall and their attention was not directed towards scanning for intruders.

"The ping and response seems normal," one of the researchers said.

"The interface is good and we have got the sensors calibrated," another added.

"Good, good," muttered the woman who appeared to be in charge of the project, "Mai, give one of the samples a pulse just to make sure we have a updated baseline."

"It's done." A voice from across the lab.

"Well, all right then," said the lead researcher, snapping her mirrored goggles into place. "Let's see if we are going to make history. Initialize the full scale test!"

The humming of energy filled the air, building to an unbearable roar as the various machines whirred to life, and there was a frantic burst of motion as scientist ran around in a panic checking their monitors. Then the sound died and Amala felt a dash of hope that the test had failed. Suddenly the huge glass globe erupted with brilliant light and in that second she knew the full weight of her fear. She saw what was in the globe and she recognized what it had to be, as the room seemed to twist and melt before her spectral eyes.

"Oh no. They really made another one."

That was when her soul began to scream.

...