BACKT TO REALITY

Marinette ended up with a terrible headache the next morning. Simba started licking her face, which he always did to make her laugh, or in this situation, wake up.

»Simbaa stop!!« she quietly said while giggling. Simba only did it more, purring in the process.

»Can you guys keep it down??« said King, still sleeping, she wasn't going to let him enjoy sleep when she had to go to school.

»Oh no, King, you're coming with me today!« she said as she rolled towards him on the bed.

»What?!? No!!« his eyes opened in seconds.

»Yess, you all are. I don't like the thought of you two being here alone, for both parties' sake.«

Tikki was already awake, munching on some cookies on the desk.

»Oh come on King it's not that bad!« exclaimed Tikki, trying to help out.

»What's NOT bad about hundreds of teenagers all in one place?! I already have to deal with one,« muttering that last bit.

Marinette raised an eyebrow at him, but she let it slide this time, because she knew she could be a pain in the ass sometimes.

She got up from the bed and dressed for a new day at a new school. At first she didn't know what to put on, but in the end went with a blue hoodie and black ripped jeans, keeping her hair down for today. While she was dressing, Tikki was telling the others what it was like there, which wasn't much, as it's only been a day, which she spent in a pocket. When she was done, King and Simba got in her bag and Tikki in her pocket.

She exited the room and entered the kitchen. It was almost eight, so she just took an apple and went on her way. This time she walked to school, paying more attention to her surroundings, as she ate her apple. Paris didn't change much from the last time she was here, almost two years ago, at this point. She even walked by few places her past missions took place at. Even though she doesn't really have any good memories from the Horde, she still really missed being a force captain. She can still remember the feeling of adrenaline running through her veins. When she got to school, she went to her assigned locker to drop Simba and King inside, then going straight to her classroom.

Today, she was actually right on time, but even so, not many students were inside. She entered anyway, not wanting to interact with anyone.

Inside were two girls talking, not paying attention to Marinette. She sat at the same desk as yesterday. Having minutes to spare, she just decided to work on a few of her songs. She managed to put a few words together, when a loud thump brought her back to reality. She looked around to find the source of it, only to find a blonde girl looking down at her with spite in her eyes. The avatar dead panned when she saw who it was.

Chloe Bourgeois.

»You must be the exchange student,« she asked, clearly with no good intentions. Marinette didn't reply, she just lazily nodded, closing her notebook.

»What? Cat got your tongue?«

»to bad it didn't eat yours,« she muttered quietly, while rolling her eyes.

Chloe didn't say anything, she just looked down at the girl's notebook and took it with such force, Marinette was worried it had ripped. The second she took it, though, Marinette stood up, looking dead in Chloe's stupidass face.

»Give it back!«

»Pft, what are gonna do about it?« she said sheepishly, looking at the book in her hand. Marinette grabbed her wrist with which she was holding the book. Chloe looked at her, disgusted that a stranger had dared touching her with their musty, crusty hands.

»You don't want to know what I can do to you!« warned the teen.

Chloe dropped the book as her wrist was starting to hurt.

»S- Stop y- you're hurting m- me!«

Marinette didn't stop, she just squeezed harder. The class was almost full, full of annoying ass kids, that just couldn't mind their own goddamn business.

Marinette often had problems with controlling her strength, sometimes it was hard for her to tell if someone was in pain. She was never taught empathy and shit like that, and now she just didn't care anymore.

Finally letting go of the girl as the teacher walked in the room. Slowly she bent down to pick up her book. As she was taking a seat, she could hearChloe say something about her telling her daddy about this.

The whole day people kept looking at the back at her while whispering about the incident. All she wanted to do was get up and leave this godforsaken world.

Inspecting the book, of any injuries, her mind wandered back to the day she got it.

MARINETTE'S POV

About a year ago, I was in a really bad mental state, I just came to Republic city, and everything was just too overwhelming. I was told about the legend, under what name people knew me as, I remembered the incident from a few years back, where I heard the name Marinette and just connected the dots. They also told me what I did all those years ago, they told me about the avatar and how I was one. I was slowly getting used to people calling me marinette, but it was- is still weird…

I learned more about the history of Xadia and myself. At that point I was already able to bend three out of four elements, which I learned all by myself. Even the masters said it was impressive that a kid was able to teach itself bending, while not being exposed to basically anything that had to do with it, except maybe the hatred for it.

But I just couldn't bend water for the life of me, still can't that being one of the major reasons for moving to Earth.

Anyways, when I got there, they gave me a bracelet like thingy, which looked to be made out of gold with a blue gem in the middle. Apparently, I had it with me when I first came here.

I never take it off.

I wanted to know how and why I even ame here in the first place, where did I even come from?! I had so many questions and no one to answer them. I was mad, frustrated…confused.

One day, I just decided… We were talking about the past, present and future in class that day, so, as one would say, I was intrigued. So I made the decision to go back in time and answer my own questions.

Of course I didn't tell anyone, they'd just try and stop me. First I had to learn more about time travelling, so I went to the one place where I knew I'd find everything I needed to know… Wang Shi Tong library… so I did, I went to the spiritual world and with some long ass searching, I found the right spell that was going to help me even get there.

Then I just needed to find someone who was going to perform the spell for me. I needed a witch or a sorcerer.

I decided to just go to Mysticor.

Mysticor is a home for most sorcerers on Xadia. And then it hit me… I'd have to actually talk to someone… tell them my plan… get them on board with the said plan…annd give them the power to basically kill me…

It was too late for me to turn back now, so with a little pros and cons of the situation, I finally decided to just do it. I was way too eager to get the answers, to find out who I was in the first place, because how am I supposed to be the avatar these people deserve, if I don't even know who I am or where i came from…

So I then did what I do best, besides killing of course, I watched and waited for the right volunteer that's going to help me.

About a day and a half later, I found someone… her name's Castaspella, so apparently she's like the lead sorcerer there or something, I don't know…

That night she was in the great room, performing her nightly spells and shit, I went inside and just… talked to her…?

»Good evening,« I guessed that was the right way to greet someone.

»Oh, good evening, young avatar,« I hate it when people call me that, »What brings you here, at this time of the night?« she turned to look at me.

»I- I actually have a proposal for you…«

»of course, what is it?«

I hesitated for a bit, »So… As you know, I never met my parents nor my family, because, well, as you know, I was too busy saving Xadia, from you-know-who…« yes, I just pulled that card, »so I was just wondering… could you by any chance… help me go back in time, to find out where I came from?« I asked quickly.

She just stared at me for what felt like a whole ass eternity.

»Your greatness, that's a very risky thing to do. I- I mean if you by any means tinker with the events that would take place, you would ruin the timeline,- «

»Yes, I know the consequences of these actions, but I really need this right now, I have spent my whole life, fighting for the wrong side as someone else, you can't possibly just expect I'd come here and be completely okay with everything? Actually, you know what? Nevermind. I think I'll just spend the rest of my life questioning my every decision! Let's just home the world won't depend on me for the next 100 years,« I said while turning around to leave.

»W- Wait! We wouldn't want that, now would we!«

I smirked, because my plan worked, as they always do. I just had to guilt trip her into getting on board with everything.

»There's just one problem,« my face fell and I turned around to look at her, »On my own, I am far from strong enough for such a complex spell.«

»I have that covered, you'll just borrow some of mine, I have a spell for that, too!«

After we were done with the first spell, we were finally ready to begin the main one. For the time travelling spell, she had to use a few ingredients to create a potion, which she then had to pour it on the ground, say a few words, the portal kind of thing would open, and I had to go through it, while thinking of the time in the past that I wanted to go to. So, I did, I went through it, without hesitation. All of a sudden, I was standing in the middle of the street in what appeared to be Republic city. At first, I thought something went wrong, that I somehow got to Republic city, instead of the past.

'Did I confuse the spells?' I thought.

I slowly looked around, inspecting my surroundings. I came to stand before a news station, which had some flyers on its walls. I managed to find a date.

3/25/05

'Funny,' I thought, 'That's the day-' I froze, still looking at the written date.

Suddenly, everything went silent.

I looked around, when my eyes stopped at a specific building. It was the orphanage, the one I was supposedly kept in, after I came here. For some reason I went there, I could feel something pulling me towards it.

I entered and just kept walking. I kept walking towards the room I was occupying, at the time.

When I got there, I stopped right in front of it. I was starting to feel sick. The doors were open, but i didn't dare enter.

The room was dark, so I couldn't see anything from where I was standing.

And then I did see something. It's difficult to describe… but there was a light, a white light, just in the middle of that dark room. Soon, it became unbearable to watch, the light became so bright I had to look away. I went to stand on the side, not wanting to be so exposed just standing there in the middle of the hallway.

And then it stopped. The light was gone, the sound came back. My back was towards the said room, so I turned around. Now, I could see perfectly clear inside. Slowly, but surely I crept closer and closer, curious as to what was waiting for me inside.

That was when I saw her- me… I saw myself. S- She was older, actually. Her back was towards me, but just as I entered, she turned too look at me. She wore a smile, one that I've never seen on me before, it's like it was… genuine?

She was standing in front of a crib, in it was…me. The baby me. They were both smiling. I felt myself smile, but then quickly stopped, when I realized. My mind was running wild.

I noticed something. The older me was wearing… a- a costume? It was a dress, maybe- white and gold. In her right hand she held a sword and on her head, there was a golden crown thingy??? Her long blond hair was in a ponytail.

'Do I dye my hair blond in the future?'

And she was super tall. I was few inches taller than others my age, still am, but she had to be at least 7- if not 8 feet.

»Marinette,« she spoke softly.

»Y- You know who I- I am?« As soon as I said that, I wanted to slap myself. Of course she knew who I was, dammit. All she did was softly laugh, as she could see by my facial expression I did not mean to say that.

But then she continued, »It's been a while since i was, what, fourteen?«

Slowly I nodded.

»I remember…« she turned to fully look at me, while the baby version was still visible in the back, still smiling. The older one's smile was slowly fading away, I recognized the pain that now appeared on her face.

All of a sudden she was shorter, she wasn't dressed in white and gold anymore, but she still had the sword in her hand. She now wore a green sleeveless shirt and green pants with no shoes, typical earth kingdom clothes, her hair was now down, back to brown and shoulder lenght.

'W- What is with me in the future??'

But this was different… even back then, when I first came to Republic city, I never wore anything else than my Horde uniform, a shirt which had a long sleeve for its right arm and no sleeve for its left arm, so it was easier for them to inject the drug in my scar, and black pants. I just couldn't bring myself to wear anything of my origin, which at the time I thought was Earth Kingdom. I didn't think of myself as worth enough. She now wore a sad expression on her face. But then she spoke again.

»I know why you're here. I was once there, standing in your shoes. I know you came here to answer your questions, but sadly you won't find many here… but there is something you must know!« she became serious rather quickly, »the night you became, tonight… there are many explanations to why you, of all others, survived,« she took a deep breath, »in four years something will happen and you will come back to this night and you will save yourself ad every other creature on Xadia…the things it will take for you to become ready for this day… it will be hard and difficult, and there will be times where all you will feel is powerless, but remember you are far from that!«

She then turned to look at the baby and to the side, where there was a bag sitting on the ground. She went to grab it, taking something out in the process. She came back to stand before me and handed me the thing she had in her hand, a book…

»Take it,« she told me.

Hesitantly I took it into my own hands, which were shaking.

W- What is it?«

»Soon, you will know,«

While still looking down at the book, I saw something fly out of her pocket. Quickly I looked up, to catch a red bug thingy flying in the air next the older version of myself. My eyes went wide and I couldn't find words to speak.

»I have to go,« she said while moving towards a wall on her right. She stopped only to say » oh and, piece of advice… just try to keep an open mind, okay?«

Turning around towards the wall, she drew something on it and a portal appeared. She looked at me once more, just to say, »I'll see you soon, okay? You should get out of here soon, as well… bugaboo… he wanted me to say that,« she laughed quietly, then looked at the baby and then again at me and the portal, »come Tikki« i managed to catch, before she disappeared.

I just stood there for a while, still processing everything. Reality hit me, when I heard loud footsteps coming up the stairs. With the book still in my hand, I quickly said goodbye to the baby.

In a panic, I left the room and hid behind a wall, just in time, before metal benders rushed into the room.

I know for some it may not seem like a big deal, but for me, it kind of is… every Xadian, ever to walk this planet, after that night, believes that I, as a damn baby no less, was actually strong enough to defeat one of- no, the greatest bender ever to live!

It's ridiculous, stupid!

When I got back, Castaspella questioned me about what I saw, but I just couldn't tell her.

I never told any of them. They still don't know… I just, can't tell them, that the one they trust will save them in time of need, isn't as powerful as they believe… I just can't bring myself to do it.

I've met kids, adults even, whose lives have changed for the better, because they think that if a baby can do the impossible, then they can… do the same. It gave meaning to things.

I can't just tell them it's all a lie…