Lyra's POV

Eversince I had my first experience with getting close to talking to any other of the past Avatars besides Korra- Words spread fast about the statues.

The red blood draining from the statues' eyes was horrifying to see, I didn't see it until it was all dried up. And no matter how much Hotaru's father scrubbed, the blood didn't want to come off. It was like a bad omen, and I knew it had to deal with what Korra and Avatar Wane were speaking about. A conversation I couldn't here until it was directed towards me.

"Block... Strike down the barrier..." I muttered to myself, staring out the window. Shima was quiet, and it's been a week. Everyone was still flabbergasted, and now everyone knew that the Avatar has appeared once again. But I had a feeling, that it might have been worser than Avatar Aang's troubles with the 100 Year War- Worse than any other Avatar has ever had to face.

That worried me, and I was recommended to speak to a national leader- FireLord Lea.

She was the second child of deceased FireLord Arden- And was named after the Phoenix, Lea. The little sister of FireLord Zuko. I had heard the stories- Heck, she was legendary by now, her story has been written down so many times it was hard to believe that she was actually a real person. And is still alive to this day at the ripe age of 210.

Phoenixes were supposed to have long life expectancies- Or so I heard. And well, she was certainly proving it.

I glanced upward to see a sparrow sitting on a tree, tweeting a bird song that had some rythymn, but a rythymn I couldn't get behind.

We tried everything to figure out what it meant, but came up empty.

So that's why we have no choice but to talk to FireLord Lea, the only known person in the world right now that could possibly know what to do.

---

We walked through the streets of Shima the next day, Hotaru and Wane came with me, while unfortunately Mr. Min had to go on ahead of us to tell let the guards and the staff know that we will be there soon to speak.

As a precaution, Mrs. Min made me wear a cloak and hood to hide who I was, even though nobody knew I was the Avatar, but they knew where the light beam came from and well-being seen with the person who lives in the house would just give off that I was who I am.

Wane wore the same cloak and hood, it was easier for two of us to be hidden, that way only half the people who saw us would suspect it was me. Hotaru glared at everyone we passed, even baring her teeth at a old woman and hissing.

It was a sight to see, but it also just showed how protective she was if us, even if she did pick on Wane a lot.

I stopped suddenly, feeling distraught.

"Hey, you okay?" Wane asked me in a whisper as I stared at the ground, the stones in the ground somehow fixing my attention.

"Wane... I think it's a death omen." Wane rolled his eyes, tugging on my cloak to softly pull me along, "Don't say that, we don't know anything yet. FireLord Lea is our best bet to figure out what is going on." He sent me a quick smile before we were walking again, and then within a flash that felt like seconds but were minutes, we stood at the gate that entered into the palace. This would be a first for me, and honestly I wasn't ready to even be in the presence of royalty. But I had no other choice.

The guard saw us, and was about to ask us a question when he stopped, seeing Hotaru with us. He stiffly nodded, turning to the other three guards.

"Open the gate." The one guard took the pleasure of opening the gate, and revealed to us the Fire Nation Royal Palace.

---

3rd Person's POV

FireLord Lea was stuck with work, excuses, and even lacking sleep for the past week. It has never been this bad, of course it was pretty bad when her father passed and suddenly she was landed all of the work because her older sister decided she didn't want to become FireLord, despite that she had all of the training and time spent on the idea of it for the longest time.

Lea was born pretty late in FireLord Arden's life, and wasn't actually blood related. She was adopted by him and given a new name. Lea- The name of her great aunt who just adores her.

That's why at the age of 28- She was the FireLord, and has been for the past two years. Of course being young didn't have anything to deal with her troubles, since her great grandfather became FireLord officially at the age of 17. It was to deal with the generation, the generation of no Avatar and just peace. Nothing was wrong. But in the past year, everyone began to nick-pick every little thing because they were bored with their lives as there was nothing to really worry about except for a few bandits, thieves, or murderers who were being taking care of.

She rubbed at her face, her black hair was left all of the way down, having it up would have just given her a better headache. As she was glad that she wasn't seeing anyone important today- Well, she temporarily forgot that she was meeting the actual Avatar today. And of course fate for the past three generations of her family has always been dragged into the affairs of the Avatar. Her great-great grandfather being Avatar Roku's best friend (Ladies, gentlemen, and aliens. This when I realized that I screwed up the timeline. Meaning I will have to edit past chapters so shhh. Because technically, Zuko would have been dead for around 80 years... And well. I NEED TO EDIT OKAY DONT QUESTION, I WILL FIX IN THE NEAR FUTURE- Update. I fixed it in this chapter, need to do the past chapters.). FireLord Zuko being Avatar Aang's firebending teacher and helped Avatar Korra with her endeavors- It was just a mess of always being dragged into the Avatar's problems.

FireLord Lea personally did feel annoyed, but knew that she was indeed currently the only one who could hopefully help the new Avatar as her aunt was currently unavailable.

A knock on the door snapped her out of the thoughts plaguing her mind. She straightened her back, clearing her throat of any saliva. "You shall enter." The door opened and two of her guards walked in along with three kids following behind them, two wearing black hooded cloaks and one right out in the open, which FireLord Lea recognized right away to be one of her own citizens.

"Sup, Your Majesty." The golden eyed girl greeted casually but also using her title with honor. It was a odd mix that suited very well, so FireLord Lea did not correct her grammar.

She eyed the two, seeing that one stood slightly taller than the other and had a more lean build. But the slightly shorter one she could tell that their build was average. The person with the average build seemed to be tense and timid and before she could dwell more on that factor, the golden eyed girl spoke up.

"I am Hotaru Min. Lifelong friend of these two numbskulls beside me."

"Ah, the Min Family. I trust that the guards supplied around your house are doing their job?" Hotaru nodded in confirmation. Since the beam did appear from their home, of course everyone would flood to their front door. So she had guards stationed there to protect the family from any break-ins.

"They are doing quite well, Your Majesty.".

One of the cloaked fingers took a step forward, the voice belonging to a male. "With all due respect, but we would prefer to hurry this up."

"Of course. Guards leave the room please, I am perfectly safe and capable of defending myself." She ordered. The guards obliged, knowing that even if they refused, she would have just blew fire at their butts to kick them out of the throne room. The door closed and FireLord Lea sighed deeply, pushing her hair back behind her ear.

"You may take off your disguises now, no one else in the room is in here besides myself and your companions." The boy took off his hood first, letting it fall to the ground with a soft thud of material. She peered at the clothing he was wearing, 'Air Nomad? How unusual to see one of those in the Fire Nation.' She thought. The other cloaked figure did not have a flair for the dramatics and instead just pushed her her hood off of her head, revealing her emerald green eyes and chestnut colored hair. 'Earth Nation... This is turning out to be a very bad joke of them walking into a bar.'.

Her curiosity was peaked, and could easily tell who was who, as it did help that the boy was wearing Air Nomad clothes. As Air has already been passed in the cycle. Leaving the girl to be her only suspect.

As if on cue, the girl looked up at her, emerald colored eyes peering into the golden ones of the royal.

Fate had a sense of humor.

"I am FireLord Lea, and you two are?" The boy cleared his throat. "Wane, I'm a lovely halfie, South Pole and Air Nomad." Wane introduced, quickly explaining why his features were as they are. She looked to the timid girl.

"And you are?" She jumped, snapping out of her self.

"Oh, u-uh. Lyra of North Pole and Earth Kingdom descent." Her name immediately clicked in her mind, realizing that the title suited her. 'Avatar Lyra...'.

"I'm going to take a wild guess her and say that you are the Avatar?" Lyra nodded, feeling incredibly hot and sweaty. And there wasn't even any flame-age in the room. Her anxiety was just messing up her senses.

"Avatar Lyra, from what I have been told by Mr. Min and the retired Fire Sage Min- You were meditating when the beam appeared, correct?" She nodded. "What did you see?" She glanced to Hotaru, seeing the spunky girl the her a quick toothy grin of encouragement.

"Umm well, I saw faces, lots of faces."

"Of who?"

"I can only guess that they were past Avatars, Avatar Korra was there, the uh Avatar before me." FireLord Lea nodded. "Anything else?"

"She was talking to someone, uhh." The name came tumbling out of her mouth before she could process it, "Avatar Wane. The first Avatar."

"He was the first one in the Earth Cycle, correct?" Lyra nodded.

"They were discussing something that I couldn't hear." FireLord Lea leant forward in her throne, resting her elbows on her knees.

"But when they got closer. They told me to block and strike down the barrier?" She told her, her voice saying that she was questioning her own words, even though they were known to be true.

"So I see... Lyra, how long have you known?"

"Huh?" Lyra blinked in confusion. Wane lightly elbowed her in the side, "She means being the Avatar dum dum."

"Oh, uh. About a week and a half or so?" She said, thinking back to how long it had been since they left the Air Temple.

"And you can't bend?" The Firelord recalled Mr. Min saying that. She nodded.

"Only my little brother can bend an element, along with my parents."

"Who is what?"

"Dad is of the North Pole Water Tribe and Mom is of the well, Earth Kingdom."

"Grandparents?"

"They are strictly the same thing, Dad's side being all Water Tribe and Mom's side being of the Earth Kingdom. From how far we can go back I mean." FireLord Lea couldn't help but let another sigh escape her lips. She honestly had no clue, but she did have an idea it had something to do with Avatar Korra disappearing into the Spirit World. The only clue they got.

A few minutes passed while she formulated her answer, thinking back on their small talk and the information she learned, before slowly realizing that she needed to repeat something for her.

"Lyra, what did the two Avatars tell you?" Lyra had since taken a seat on the ground like her two friends, picking at the heel of her boot.

"Block. Strike down the barrier."

"I'm sorry but I can't help you." Hotaru groaned, throwing her head back, "Well this was damn pointless stressing over! She can't even help her!" Hotaru stated to Wane who rolled his eyes, "It was worth the try-"

"You two didn't let me finish." Their heads snapped up to FireLord Lea, seeing that she had gotten off of her throne and was walking towards them.

"I can't help her when it comes to that, but I can give her some advice to help her realize what those words mean." Lyra stood up straighter. Feeling slightly intimidated by the taller woman.

"Lyra- I mean Avatar Lyra. I believe your past lives were trying to tell you to fight, to break down barriers you have never broken down before. I know that you are afraid of this whole thing, the world resting on your shoulders. But you are the one who will be able to save the world one day once it comes down to it. I know you will." The words of encouragement and advice clicked in the young girl's mind, seeing that even though the FireLord had no clue on how to give advice to the literal Avatar. She did anyway.

"Here, you must be thirsty. Walk with me to the dining area. Hopefully some tea will help ease yourself." The three nodded, not wanting to refuse the kind offer. They followed her out if the throne room and down the hall in silence. And only one person in the group couldn't take the silence for much longer.

"Sooo... Why does everyone call you FireLord and not FireLady?" She glanced behind her shoulder at Wane, sensing a small smile his way before looking straight in front of her.

"I am unmarried. If I was married, I would be named FireLady. But since I am not, FireLord suits me just fine."

"Are you thinking of any suitors soon?" Hotaru couldn't help but ask the leader of her Nation. She shook her head.

"I'm not interested in married life or having children for that matter."

"What about when you pass away? Who will become the next ruler?"

"By then, hopefully the world will finally be unified and will only need one ruler to rule all. I feel the time of the Fire Nation Royalty is coming to an end. FireLord Zuko, had that vision when he was still alive and wanted to bring the whole world together. It may have been futile back then. But since Avatar Korra's impact on us 90 years later- things are showing to be that it will no longer be an ideology any longer."

'An end to Fire Nation Royalty...' Lyra thought. She wasn't sure if the current King of the Earth Kingdom felt the same. But more than likely his first born son would become the one true ruler if her plan follows through in the years coming.

They entered the dining room, spotting the paintings adorning the walls. FireLord Lea left them to fetch some tea for them, letting Lyra to explore the room. More specifically, look at the paintings.

The paintings she could tell have been up for quite some time. And actually many of them she recognized to be of FireLord Zuko and his friends. She tried to remember the names of all of the people who ended the 100 Year War, but came up empty. She was never good at remembering history anyway.

She moved onto the next, seeing that this one this time had Avatar Korra in it with a family of airbenders. It was Avatar's Aang's son and daughter in law along with his grandchildren. They were the start of the airbenders once again, and built the Air Nomads from the ground up.

The next painting was of FireLord Zuko and FireLady Mai, along with their daughter who soon became the next FireLady. And was actually FireLord Lea's great grandmother.

Lyra stared up at the painting. Feeling as if she had connection with the three, even though she knew they were long dead by now unless they became zombies. There was a certain fondness she felt that she couldn't pick out on why she felt it when staring at the painting.

The same thing with Avatar's Korra paintings that she was featured in, she felt as if she knew the people in then like the back of her hand, when they were to be dead by now.

It was an odd feeling tired her, and couldn't easily brush off.

She came to a sudden halt when she saw a staff with a blue ribbon tied around the hilt of it. It was in a display case and out of her reach by a  good two feet. She recognized the staff, and looked to the painting of Avatar Aang, it was the same staff.

The blue ribbon was tricky to see what it was or who it belonged to as she was pretty sure Avatar Aang wouldn't ever have a pretty blue ribbon tied around his staff when he was alive. Her thoughts went to Avatar Korra- She always had her hair tied up, and what else was there to tie with in a bit of style? Blue ribbon.

"I see that you found the staff." Lyra jumped, seeing that FireLord Lea was standing next to her, two cups of tea in hand. She handed the cup of jasmine to her, blowing on it to cool it down.

"They were given to my family after both Avatar Aang and Avatar Korra either died or dissapeared."

"By who?" Lyra carefully took a sip, but was betrayed when she felt her tongue being burnt.

"Tenzin. The son of Avatar Aang. He wanted us to have it first safe keeping. I didn't want the two to be in different displays and guarded as such, so I tied the ribbon around the staff. Only I did this when I became FireLord, my mother would have boiled me alive if I did that when she was still around. She may actually still do it when I go to the afterlife or Spirit World once my time is up." The tall woman smiled fondly at the staff before looking down at Lyra, seeing her ascot that she had tied around her neck.

"How long have you been wearing that?"

"Huh?" Lyra scrunched up her eyebrows, confused for a moment before the FireLord began fiddling with the end of her ascot.

"Oh. Actually it used to be my baby blanket that my grandmother made for me. She was a tailor before she died, but made sure that she finished it before leaving this world. Over the years, I decided to cut it so I could take it with me wherever I went. And it just stuck with me since." She nodded, taking a sip of her own tea, unbothered by the hot water like Lyra was.

"I'm glad to see that you hold the little things in life dear to you. Not many people do that anymore." Lyra shrugged, not thinking much of it.

"Hey Lyra!" Lyra turned to see Wane pointing at something on display. Lyra excused herself before walking over.

"What-?" Wane grabbed hold of her bicep, pulling her closer to his side. She steadied herself at the tea in her hands, not wanting to accidentally spill it onto the expensive flooring.

Her eyes went to what Wane was so excited about it before her eyes rested on a book Hatoru was looking through, the pages on full display to her.

"This a book is for bending! We can use this to help you learn the elements!" Wane told her excitedly. FireLord Lea chuckled, finally realizing what they had found.

"This used to belong to my great Aunt. The Phoenix Lea."

"What?! I thought she was just a legend! I mean, there is no portraits of her or anything-" Hotaru began but was caught off. "She was quite camera shy, and still lives to this day. This book was actually used for Avatars when they were in peril, if they had no masters they could learn from. It ended up in Phoenix Lea's hands as a gift from somebody. During the time of the 100 Year War. Before Avatar Aang appeared again."

"That's so cool! To think that people from the long ago actually touched this!" Wane ripped the book out of Hotaru's hands who frowned. "Hey be careful! That's fragile airhead!"

"Nah, this thing is too cool to be fragile." Hotaru growled and lunged for the book but Wane quickly shoved it into Lyra's hands, knocking the tea out of her hand and onto the floor.

Lyra went frigid, every muscle and bone in her body couldn't move, and her eyes were wide as saucers.

"Lyra-?" Lyra blinked rapidly, the images dissapearing from sight in almost an instant. As quick as they came, they left her.

To Be continued

So yeah. Hello.

Finally off of hiatus, but updates will continue to be slow, you know the drill.

If you could tell already this is pretty much a squeak to Phoenix Fire since Lea is mentioned in it. If you haven't read that, you are free to do so if you want to know that character. But you aren't obliged to since I just threw her in cause I felt like it.

I need to go and edit past chapters because of the timeline which is ahh, annoying. Especially since I don't know how to math apparently.

Thank you all for reading! -Golden

Word Count: 3706