Luke

"Wake up."

It was her voice. Again. Raava. No. I was done. I wouldn't listen.

"You cannot ignore me forever."

Just ignore it.

"You can refuse to answer me, but you know I will not leave."

I closed my eyes. It was the dead of night. Why now? She just wants me to answer out of desperation. I won't.

So I didn't.

But she didn't leave. "You cannot disregard the voice inside your head. Speak to me and we can be through with this all the sooner."

I was tired. I was tired of her and I wanted sleep. She wouldn't leave. I knew that much. She'd stay around until the sun rose, but she always came back the next night. But how long until she finally left? How long until the Solstice lost its effect? A day? A week? A month? I was tired of waiting. The sooner I got this over with, the better, but I had no pleasant words to speak to her. "What do you want?"

"I want to help you."

"Interesting way of putting it."

"I tried to warn you."

"So that's what this is about? Here to brag to my face? That you were right? That I should have left the Fire Nation? Is that what you want? For me to ay that the all-powerful spirit was right? Well congradu-fucking-lations. I'm here now, aren't I? You win. I left."

"That is not why I am here. I said you were in danger in the Fire Nation. At a risk of death."

"I'm at a risk of death wherever the hell I go."

"It is not that death I speak of. I saw what has happened to you over these last years. Things no child your age should ever have witnessed. I warned of the things that would pass should you decide to stay on your path, yet I cannot control the wills of man, I can only try to help."

"Well. That's great. A little less vague would have been nice. Or, oh, I don't know, tell me that my General was going to try to lead me to an early grave, that I would see thousands of men die around me over the course of a single hour, that I would see the head of my best friend atop a pike, or, oh, I don't fucking know, that maybe I shouldn't kill an entire town of men, women, and children. Because guess what? Saying "Leave the Fire Nation if you hope to live," isn't really damn helpful!"

"I cannot tell you what the future entails. I can only warn you of where your life may head."

"Bullshit. What kind of bullshit spirit-world law is this? You can only warn me in the vaguest ways possible? You can't actually help me, but only say enough to say 'I told you so' once it's said and done? You said nothing to me to help me. You warned me my life would be in danger, but I'd been living, with my life in danger, since I've been born. I broke into homes, stole, deceived, and killed all before you decided to talk to me for the first-time last year. Did it ever occur to you that I didn't give two shits about my life at that point? I'd seen worse, lived through worse. You told me my life would be in danger, but that doesn't exactly help anyone now does it, but what you failed to tell me, was about every damned person around me. It seems like if there's anyone you should have warned me about, it was those assholes. Gan. Gi Gu. Danev. Lu Ten. All better people than me, but for some reason I end up living. You missed that part it seems. You also missed the part about the people I'd kill. Where was that warning? How do you like your-. How did you put it? Your 'closest thing you have to the Avatar' now? I killed soldiers, sure, whatever, I've read about the spirits. You did that all the time back in the day and seem to keep a strikingly keen eye over the conflicts on this Earth, like it's all some kind of sick game to you, but I also killed men, women, children. I looked into their eyes and I burned them alive. Quite the Avatar, huh?! Wow. There goes your fucking investment! Why can't you just leave me alone?! What do I have that you could still possibly want from me? What fucking half-assed advice do you insist on forcing upon me now? Want to tell me some more about the people who are going to die around me? Those fateful three? Well fuck you. I'm done."

"I told you a year ago that if you lived to the next solstice, I would come, and we would talk."

"Yeah, well I talked. So say whatever you have to say and be done it. I'm done talking, and I'm done listening."

"You aren't done listening."

"I am."

"No. You know just as well as I do that you want to what I have to say, that what you desire more than anything to is to know what awaits you."

"Like you'll answer that," I scoffed. "Yes. I want to know what's going to happen to me, but I know better now than to expect actual answers from you. I'm done. Done with your bullshit."

There was a silence. Enough of one to make me believe she had actually left, until she said, "I am sorry for what happened to you at Ba Sing Se. Nobody deserves to see what you have seen. I've served nearly a thousand Avatars, most of them in times of peace and relative stability. Only a few have witnessed horrors equal or greater than what you have. I am sorry if I have been able to help you, but I did not lie to you when I said you are currently our greatest hope, and I am here to help you. Is there anything I can do?"

I didn't believe a word she said. And I was done with her. "Yes. You can let me sleep."

She left, and I only received half of my wish. I slept, but I still awoke up the following morning.